--- title: "South Africa vs United States — area, population, currency" description: "South Africa is 1,219,090 km² with 64,747,319 people; United States is 9,833,517 km² with 341,784,857. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side" url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/south-africa-vs-united-states/ site: "At One Place" --- # South Africa vs United States **South Africa vs United States: United States is larger; United States has more people** 1,219,090 km² vs 9,833,517 km² · 64,747,319 vs 341,784,857 United States is 8.1 times larger than South Africa — 9,833,517 against 1,219,090 km². United States is 5.3 times more populous than South Africa — 341,784,857 against 64,747,319 people. ## Side by side | | South Africa | United States | | --- | --- | --- | | Capital | Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) | Washington, D.C. | | Area | 1,219,090 km² | 9,833,517 km² | | Population | 64,747,319 (2025) | 341,784,857 (2025) | | Density | 53.1 /km² | 34.8 /km² | | Currency | South African rand (ZAR) | United States dollar (USD) | | Official languages | Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu | English | | Time zones | UTC+02:00 | UTC-10:00, UTC-09:00, UTC-08:00, UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00, UTC-05:00 | | Calling code | +27 | +1 | | Drives on the | left | right | | Continent | Africa | North America | | ISO codes | ZA / ZAF | US / USA | ## Population density South Africa is 1.5 times more densely populated than United States — 53 against 35 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, United States on the right. - Different currencies: the South African rand and the United States dollar. - United States spans 6 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer. - Different continents — Africa and North America. ## 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 States Third or fourth largest country in the world depending on how China's area is counted. It spans six standard time zones across the fifty states, from UTC-10 in Hawaii to UTC-5 on the east coast. Death Valley holds the highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth, 56.7 °C in 1913, and is 86 m below sea level; Denali, 5,500 km away in Alaska, is 6,190 m. > 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 States? United States is larger — 9,833,517 km² against 1,219,090 km². ### Which has more people, South Africa or United States? United States, with 341,784,857 against 64,747,319. ### What is the time difference between South Africa and United States? South Africa is UTC+02:00 and United States is UTC-10:00, UTC-09:00, UTC-08:00, UTC-07:00, UTC-06:00, UTC-05:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it. ## Related pages - [South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/) - [United States](https://atoneplace.net/country/united-states/) - [United States vs Vietnam](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-vietnam/) - [United States vs Vatican City](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-vatican-city/) - [United States vs Venezuela](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/united-states-vs-venezuela/) - [India vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-united-states/) - [India vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-south-africa/) - [China vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-united-states/) - [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/) - [Japan vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-states/) - [Japan vs South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-africa/) - [Canada vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/canada-vs-united-states/) - [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]