New Zealand vs South Korea

New Zealand is 2.7 times larger than South Korea — 268,838 against 99,720 km². South Korea is 9.7 times more populous than New Zealand — 51,684,564 against 5,324,700 people.

Side by side

Population density

South Korea is 26 times more densely populated than New Zealand — 518 against 20 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

Practical differences

• They drive on opposite sides — New Zealand on the left, South Korea on the right.
• Different currencies: the New Zealand dollar and the South Korean won.
• New Zealand spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Oceania and Asia.

New Zealand

Two main islands and around 600 smaller ones, roughly 1,600 km long. New Zealand broke away from Gondwana about 80 million years ago and had no land mammals except bats until people arrived, which is why so many of its birds are flightless. The Southern Alps run most of the South Island and reach 3,724 m at Aoraki / Mount Cook.

South Korea

About seventy percent mountain, so the population is packed into the valleys and coastal plains; the Seoul metropolitan area holds roughly half the country. Jeju Island is a shield volcano whose lava tube system is among the finest in the world. South Korea has the fastest average internet connections of any large country.

Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.