Norway vs South Africa

South Africa is 3.8 times larger than Norway — 1,219,090 against 323,802 km². South Africa is 12 times more populous than Norway — 64,747,319 against 5,610,870 people.

Side by side

Population density

South Africa is 3.1 times more densely populated than Norway — 53 against 17 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 — Norway on the right, South Africa on the left.
• Different currencies: the Norwegian krone and the South African rand.
• Different continents — Europe and Africa.

Norway

The mainland coastline is about 2,500 km end to end, but roughly 25,000 km following the fjords, and over 100,000 km counting the islands — one of the longest coastlines of any country. Sognefjord runs 205 km inland and is 1,308 m deep. Norway generates almost all its electricity from hydropower.

South Africa

One of only a handful of countries with more than one capital, and the only one with three. The Vredefort Dome south-west of Johannesburg is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, about 300 km across and 2 billion years old. The Cape Floral Region packs roughly 9,000 plant species into a small corner of the country, most of them found nowhere else.

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.