---
title: "South Africa vs United Kingdom — area, population, currency"
description: "South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319 people; United Kingdom is 243,610 km² with 69,487,000. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/south-africa-vs-united-kingdom/
site: "At One Place"
---

# South Africa vs United Kingdom

**South Africa vs United Kingdom: South Africa is larger; United Kingdom has more people**

1,219,090 km² vs 243,610 km² · 64,747,319 vs 69,487,000

South Africa is 5.0 times larger than United Kingdom — 1,219,090 against 243,610 km². United Kingdom is slightly more populous, by 7.3% — 69,487,000 against 64,747,319 people.

## Side by side

|  | South Africa | United Kingdom |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) | London |
| Area | 1,219,090 km² | 243,610 km² |
| Population | 64,747,319 (2025) | 69,487,000 (2025) |
| Density | 53.1 /km² | 285.2 /km² |
| Currency | South African rand (ZAR) | British pound (GBP) |
| Official languages | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu | English |
| Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC+00:00 |
| Calling code | +27 | +44 |
| Drives on the | left | left |
| Continent | Africa | Europe |
| ISO codes | ZA / ZAF | GB / GBR |

## Population density

United Kingdom is 5.4 times more densely populated than South Africa — 285 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

- Different currencies: the South African rand and the British pound.
- 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.

## United Kingdom

Made up of Great Britain, the north-east of Ireland and around 6,000 smaller islands. No point in the UK is more than about 113 km from the sea. Ben Nevis, the highest point, is 1,345 m, which is modest — but the country has around 31,000 km of coastline once every inlet is counted.

> 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 United Kingdom?

South Africa is larger — 1,219,090 km² against 243,610 km².

### Which has more people, South Africa or United Kingdom?

United Kingdom, with 69,487,000 against 64,747,319.

### What is the time difference between South Africa and United Kingdom?

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

## Related pages

- [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/)
- [United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country/united-kingdom/)
- [India vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/)
- [China vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [China vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-south-africa/)
- [United Kingdom vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-kingdom-vs-united-states/)
- [United Kingdom vs Vietnam](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-kingdom-vs-vietnam/)
- [United Kingdom vs Vatican City](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-kingdom-vs-vatican-city/)
- [United Kingdom vs Venezuela](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-kingdom-vs-venezuela/)
- [Japan vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/)
- [Canada vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [Canada vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-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]