---
title: "South Africa vs Switzerland — area, population, currency"
description: "South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319 people; Switzerland is 41,277 km² with 9,092,436. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/south-africa-vs-switzerland/
site: "At One Place"
---

# South Africa vs Switzerland

**South Africa vs Switzerland: South Africa is larger; South Africa has more people**

1,219,090 km² vs 41,277 km² · 64,747,319 vs 9,092,436

South Africa is 30 times larger than Switzerland — 1,219,090 against 41,277 km². South Africa is 7.1 times more populous than Switzerland — 64,747,319 against 9,092,436 people.

## Side by side

|  | South Africa | Switzerland |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) | Bern |
| Area | 1,219,090 km² | 41,277 km² |
| Population | 64,747,319 (2025) | 9,092,436 (2025) |
| Density | 53.1 /km² | 220.3 /km² |
| Currency | South African rand (ZAR) | Swiss franc (CHF) |
| Official languages | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu | German, French, Italian, Romansh |
| Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC+01:00 |
| Calling code | +27 | +41 |
| Drives on the | left | right |
| Continent | Africa | Europe |
| ISO codes | ZA / ZAF | CH / CHE |

## Population density

Switzerland is 4.1 times more densely populated than South Africa — 220 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, Switzerland on the right.
- Different currencies: the South African rand and the Swiss franc.
- 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.

## Switzerland

The most mountainous country in Europe: the Alps cover about sixty percent of it and it has 48 peaks over 4,000 m. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, 57 km long, is the longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world. Switzerland has four official languages and about 1,500 lakes.

> 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.

## Common questions

### Is South Africa bigger than Switzerland?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 41,277 km².

### Which has more people, South Africa or Switzerland?

South Africa, with 64,747,319 against 9,092,436.

### What is the time difference between South Africa and Switzerland?

South Africa is UTC+02:00 and Switzerland is UTC+01:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country/switzerland/)
- [India vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-switzerland/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-switzerland/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [Japan vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-switzerland/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-switzerland/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-south-africa/)
- [Australia vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-switzerland/)
- [Australia vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/australia-vs-south-africa/)
- [New Zealand vs Switzerland](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-switzerland/)
- [New Zealand vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/new-zealand-vs-south-africa/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]