---
title: "South Africa vs Turkey — area, population, currency"
description: "South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319 people; Turkey is 783,562 km² with 85,878,556. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/south-africa-vs-turkey/
site: "At One Place"
---

# South Africa vs Turkey

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

1,219,090 km² vs 783,562 km² · 64,747,319 vs 85,878,556

South Africa is 1.6 times larger than Turkey — 1,219,090 against 783,562 km². Turkey is 1.3 times more populous than South Africa — 85,878,556 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | South Africa | Turkey |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) | Ankara |
| Area | 1,219,090 km² | 783,562 km² |
| Population | 64,747,319 (2025) | 85,878,556 (2025) |
| Density | 53.1 /km² | 109.6 /km² |
| Currency | South African rand (ZAR) | Turkish lira (TRY) |
| Official languages | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu | Turkish |
| Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC+03:00 |
| Calling code | +27 | +90 |
| Drives on the | left | right |
| Continent | Africa | Asia |
| ISO codes | ZA / ZAF | TR / TUR |

## Population density

Turkey is 2.1 times more densely populated than South Africa — 110 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, Turkey on the right.
- Different currencies: the South African rand and the Turkish lira.
- Different continents — Africa and Asia.

## 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.

## Turkey

Istanbul is the only large city built on two continents, split by the Bosphorus. Cappadocia's fairy chimneys are eroded volcanic tuff, and the underground city at Derinkuyu goes down about 85 m over eighteen levels. Pamukkale's white terraces are travertine deposited by hot calcium-rich springs.

> 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 Turkey?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 783,562 km².

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

Turkey, with 85,878,556 against 64,747,319.

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

South Africa is UTC+02:00 and Turkey is UTC+03:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

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