Taiwan vs United Kingdom

United Kingdom is 6.8 times larger than Taiwan — 243,610 against 35,980 km². United Kingdom is 2.9 times more populous than Taiwan — 69,487,000 against 23,600,776 people.

Side by side

Population density

Taiwan is 2.3 times more densely populated than United Kingdom — 656 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 — Taiwan on the right, United Kingdom on the left.
• Different currencies: the New Taiwan dollar and the British pound.
• Different continents — Asia and Europe.

Taiwan

A mountainous island: 268 peaks rise above 3,000 m in an area smaller than Switzerland, and Yushan reaches 3,952 m. Taroko Gorge is cut about 19 km through marble. The island sits on the Ring of Fire and the Tropic of Cancer crosses it, so the south is tropical and the high interior gets snow.

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.