South Africa vs Spain

South Africa is 2.4 times larger than Spain — 1,219,090 against 505,370 km². South Africa is 1.3 times more populous than Spain — 64,747,319 against 49,355,143 people.

Side by side

Population density

Spain is 1.8 times more densely populated than South Africa — 98 against 53 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 — South Africa on the left, Spain on the right.
• Different currencies: the South African rand and the Euro.
• Spain spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Africa and Europe.

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.

Spain

After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe, with an average elevation around 650 m. The Canary Islands sit off Africa, which is why part of Spain is on a different time zone and why Teide, at 3,715 m, is the country's highest point. Spain has more olive trees than any other country, around 340 million.

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.