Portugal vs United Kingdom

United Kingdom is 2.6 times larger than Portugal — 243,610 against 92,090 km². United Kingdom is 6.4 times more populous than Portugal — 69,487,000 against 10,804,871 people.

Side by side

Population density

United Kingdom is 2.4 times more densely populated than Portugal — 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 — Portugal on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the British pound.
• Portugal spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.

Portugal

Mainland Portugal plus the Azores and Madeira, which push its exclusive economic zone to one of the largest in Europe. Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Europe. Portugal produces around half the world's cork, most of it from the montado oak landscapes of the Alentejo.

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.