Poland vs United Kingdom

Poland is 1.3 times larger than United Kingdom — 312,685 against 243,610 km². United Kingdom is 1.9 times more populous than Poland — 69,487,000 against 36,435,861 people.

Side by side

Population density

United Kingdom is 2.4 times more densely populated than Poland — 285 against 117 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 — Poland on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the Polish złoty and the British pound.

Poland

The Wieliczka salt mine near Kraków has been worked since the 13th century and holds chapels, chandeliers and statues carved entirely from rock salt, about 300 m down. Białowieża on the Belarusian border is the last large fragment of the primeval forest that once covered the European plain.

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.