Panama vs United Kingdom

United Kingdom is 3.2 times larger than Panama — 243,610 against 75,420 km². United Kingdom is 15 times more populous than Panama — 69,487,000 against 4,571,189 people.

Side by side

Population density

United Kingdom is 4.7 times more densely populated than Panama — 285 against 61 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 — Panama on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the Panamanian balboa and the British pound.
• Different continents — North America and Europe.

Panama

The canal is 82 km long and lifts ships 26 m up to Gatún Lake and back down, using gravity-fed fresh water rather than pumps. Because the isthmus curves, a ship going from the Atlantic to the Pacific travels roughly south-east. The Darién Gap is the only break in the 30,000 km Pan-American Highway.

United Kingdom

Made up of Great Britain, the north-east of Ireland and around 6,000 smaller islands. No point in the UK is more than about 113 km from the sea. Ben Nevis, the highest point, is 1,345 m, which is modest — but the country has around 31,000 km of coastline once every inlet is counted.

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.