---
title: "South Africa vs Ukraine — area, population, currency"
description: "South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319 people; Ukraine is 603,550 km² with 38,980,376. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/south-africa-vs-ukraine/
site: "At One Place"
---

# South Africa vs Ukraine

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

1,219,090 km² vs 603,550 km² · 64,747,319 vs 38,980,376

South Africa is 2.0 times larger than Ukraine — 1,219,090 against 603,550 km². South Africa is 1.7 times more populous than Ukraine — 64,747,319 against 38,980,376 people.

## Side by side

|  | South Africa | Ukraine |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) | Kyiv |
| Area | 1,219,090 km² | 603,550 km² |
| Population | 64,747,319 (2025) | 38,980,376 (2025) |
| Density | 53.1 /km² | 64.6 /km² |
| Currency | South African rand (ZAR) | Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) |
| Official languages | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu | Ukrainian |
| Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Calling code | +27 | +380 |
| Drives on the | left | right |
| Continent | Africa | Europe |
| ISO codes | ZA / ZAF | UA / UKR |

## Population density

Ukraine is 1.2 times more densely populated than South Africa — 65 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, Ukraine on the right.
- Different currencies: the South African rand and the Ukrainian hryvnia.
- 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.

## Ukraine

The largest country entirely within Europe. About a quarter of the world's chernozem — the deep black soil that makes grain farming so productive — lies here. The Carpathians in the west reach 2,061 m, and the rest of the country is largely steppe drained by the Dnieper.

> 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 Ukraine?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 603,550 km².

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

South Africa, with 64,747,319 against 38,980,376.

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

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

## Related pages

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