South Africa vs Sweden

South Africa is 2.7 times larger than Sweden — 1,219,090 against 450,295 km². South Africa is 6.1 times more populous than Sweden — 64,747,319 against 10,596,620 people.

Side by side

Population density

South Africa is 2.3 times more densely populated than Sweden — 53 against 24 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, Sweden on the right.
• Different currencies: the South African rand and the Swedish krona.
• 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.

Sweden

Sweden has roughly 267,000 islands, more than any other country, though only a small fraction are inhabited. Around seventy percent of it is forest, and a seventh lies above the Arctic Circle. Its right of public access lets anyone walk and camp on most uncultivated land.

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.