South Korea vs United Kingdom

United Kingdom is 2.4 times larger than South Korea — 243,610 against 99,720 km². United Kingdom is 1.3 times more populous than South Korea — 69,487,000 against 51,684,564 people.

Side by side

Population density

South Korea is 1.8 times more densely populated than United Kingdom — 518 against 285 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 Korea on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the South Korean won and the British pound.
• 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.

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.