Switzerland vs United States

United States is 238 times larger than Switzerland — 9,833,517 against 41,277 km². United States is 38 times more populous than Switzerland — 341,784,857 against 9,092,436 people.

Side by side

Population density

Switzerland is 6.3 times more densely populated than United States — 220 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

• Different currencies: the Swiss franc and the United States dollar.
• United States spans 6 time zones, so "local time" there is not a single answer.
• Different continents — Europe and North America.

Switzerland

The most mountainous country in Europe: the Alps cover about sixty percent of it and it has 48 peaks over 4,000 m. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, 57 km long, is the longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world. Switzerland has four official languages and about 1,500 lakes.

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.