North Korea vs South Africa
South Africa is 10.1 times larger than North Korea. North Korea would fit into South Africa about 10 times.
North KoreaSouth AfricaNorth Korea moved onto South Africa · Equal-area projection
0.1×
North Korea is 0.1× the area of South Africa. Put the other way, South Africa is 10.1× the size of North Korea.
| North Korea | South Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| Area | 120,540 km² | 1,221,037 km² |
| Population | 26,571,036 | 64,747,319 |
| Density | 220 / km² | 53 / km² |
| Capital | Pyongyang | Pretoria |
| Region | Eastern Asia | Southern Africa |
| Coastline | Has a coast | Has a coast |
| Neighbours | 3 | 6 |
Why the map you grew up with disagrees
On a Mercator map, area grows with distance from the equator. North Korea sits at about 40°N and is stretched to 1.71× its true area; South Africa at 29° S is stretched to 1.31×. Here the two are distorted about the same amount, so Mercator gets this pair roughly right. The figure above uses the Equal Earth projection, where every square kilometre is drawn the same size.
Questions about this pair
- Is North Korea bigger than South Africa?
- No. North Korea is 10.1 times smaller than South Africa. North Korea covers 120,540 km² and South Africa covers 1,221,037 km².
- How many times does North Korea fit into South Africa?
- About 10 times: South Africa has 10.1× the area of North Korea.
- Why do North Korea and South Africa look different on Google Maps?
- Web maps use the Mercator projection, which stretches area with distance from the equator. North Korea is drawn about 1.71× its true area there and South Africa about 1.31×. For this pair the distortion is similar, so Mercator gets the comparison roughly right. Kartavera uses Equal Earth, where every square kilometre is drawn the same size.
- Which has more people, North Korea or South Africa?
- South Africa: 64,747,319 people against 26,571,036. Density: North Korea 220 per km², South Africa 53 per km².