Papua New Guinea is 1.25× the size of Japan

Papua New Guinea covers about 465,000 km² (180,000 mi²) and Japan about 374,000 km² (144,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other.

465,000km²Papua New Guinea
374,000km²Japan

500 km

Papua New Guinea
Japan

What fits

Japan is 80% of the size of Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea is larger by 91,600 km² (35,400 mi²), which is 25% of the area of Japan.
Measured in Belgiums: Papua New Guinea is about 15.2, Japan about 12.2.

How they differ

Papua New Guinea is larger, but Japan has the larger population: 123.8 million against 8.9 million, 13.9× as many people.
Per square kilometre that is 331 in Japan against 19 in Papua New Guinea: Japan is 17.3× as densely populated.
Their centres are about 4,940 km apart.
On a standard web map Japan looks larger than Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea at 6°S is drawn about 1.0× too large and Japan at 37°N about 1.6×, so the map shows Japan as 1.26× the size of Papua New Guinea, when Papua New Guinea is 1.25× the size of Japan.
Together Papua New Guinea and Japan cover 839,000 km², close to the size of Namibia (823,000 km², 1.9% smaller).
The gap between them, 91,600 km², is about the size of Portugal (91,400 km²).
At Japan's density, Papua New Guinea would have 154.2 million people (it has 8.9 million). At Papua New Guinea's density, Japan would have 7.2 million (it has 123.8 million).
Japan's centre is 43.9° of latitude, about 4,880 km, farther north than Papua New Guinea's.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Papua New Guinea	1.25×
More people	Japan	13.9×
More crowded	Japan	17.3×
Farther north	Japan	43.9° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Japan	1.6× against 1.0×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Papua New Guinea	Japan
Belgium 30,700 km²	15.2×	12.2×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	1.91×	1.53×
Germany 358,000 km²	1.30×	1.04×
France 548,000 km²	0.85×	0.68×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.15×	0.12×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.05×	0.04×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.05×	0.04×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.03×	0.02×

Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.

Side by side

	Papua New Guinea	Japan
Area, main territory	465,000 km²180,000 mi²	374,000 km²144,000 mi²
Population	8.9 millionWikidata, 2020	123.8 millionWikidata, 2024
Density	19 per km²	331 per km²
Official area	463,000 km²Wikidata	378,000 km²Wikidata
Capital	Port Moresby	Tokyo
Latitude range	12°S to 1°S	24°N to 46°N
Continent	Oceania	Asia

Population: Wikidata 2020 and Wikidata 2024, covering each whole country. Official figures: Wikidata (CC0).

Wikidata's official figure of 463,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 465,000 km², to within 2%.
Wikidata's official figure of 378,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 374,000 km², to within 2%.

Similar in size to Papua New Guinea

Similar in size to Japan

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 - Countries, public domain
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. Main territory: the largest landmass and every part within 1,000 km of it.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. Comparisons use main-territory area.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and the two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method