South Korea vs Spain

Spain is 5.1 times larger than South Korea — 505,370 against 99,720 km². South Korea is slightly more populous, by 4.7% — 51,684,564 against 49,355,143 people.

Side by side

Population density

South Korea is 5.3 times more densely populated than Spain — 518 against 98 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 Korean won and the Euro.
• Spain spans 2 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

South Korea

About seventy percent mountain, so the population is packed into the valleys and coastal plains; the Seoul metropolitan area holds roughly half the country. Jeju Island is a shield volcano whose lava tube system is among the finest in the world. South Korea has the fastest average internet connections of any large country.

Spain

After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe, with an average elevation around 650 m. The Canary Islands sit off Africa, which is why part of Spain is on a different time zone and why Teide, at 3,715 m, is the country's highest point. Spain has more olive trees than any other country, around 340 million.

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.