Place comparison

Busan compared with Taipei City: area, population and density

Busan covers about 2.84 times Taipei City’s land with about 1.33 times its residents, so Taipei City is the denser of the two by more than double.

Place A Grouped by country or region Place B Grouped by country or region

Equal-area outline comparison

Outlines are centered and scaled by official land area; position does not show geographic location.

Area

Population

Population density

Area data date

Population data date

The guide below belongs to this pair: Busan and Taipei City. Change the selector above and the page follows, so the reading always matches the tool.

Direct answer

How different are Busan and Taipei City?

Busan covers 771.7 km²; Busan's area is 2.84 times Taipei City's. Its reported population is 3,241,600; Busan's population is 1.33 times Taipei City's. By average density, Busan's population density is about 46.8% of Taipei City's.

Area difference

Busan's area is 2.84 times Taipei City's 771.7 km² · 271.8 km²

Population difference

Busan's population is 1.33 times Taipei City's 3,241,600 · 2,439,507

Density difference

Busan's population density is about 46.8% of Taipei City's 4,200.8 /km² · 8,975.4 /km²

Full data and sources for each place: Busan area & population, Taipei City area & population

Straight-line distance between geometric centres: about 1336 km; time difference: 1 hours.

On a familiar scale

Busan ≈ 72% of Changhua County (reference rung) 238 m² of land per resident
Taipei City ≈ 1.79 × Kinmen County (reference rung) 111 m² of land per resident

Reference scales come from Department of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior: Land area, households and population density by township and district (year-end 2025) , as of 2025-12-31.

How to read it

South Korea’s second-largest city has much more land per resident than Taiwan’s capital, even though Busan is itself a major port metropolis, not an empty one.

Geography and shape

Busan is a coastal metropolis wrapped around South Korea’s busiest container port, with mountainous terrain pushing much of its housing onto hillsides above the harbour. Taipei City sits in a river basin ringed by hills, a fraction of Busan’s extent. Comparing the two full administrative territories — not just their built-up cores — is what produces the nearly threefold area gap.

Population context

Busan’s population is about 1.33 times Taipei City’s, spread across land about 2.84 times as large, so its average density — about 4,200 per km² — runs well under half of Taipei City’s roughly 8,976. Both are city-proper figures and exclude each city’s much larger surrounding metropolitan area.

Boundaries and definitions

Busan’s figures are resident registration population (주민등록인구) and official administrative area, both at 2025-12-31, from the same Ministry of the Interior and Safety report already used for Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan and Sejong — a different population series from the Statistics Korea register-based census the South Korea and Seoul pages use, though usually close. Taipei City uses household registration at 2025-12-31. Busan’s outline is drawn from GADM 4.1, not OpenStreetMap or Natural Earth, both of which fail this site’s land-outline bar for Busan — see docs/island-data-sources.md.

Busan: Busan Metropolitan City's full administrative territory, South Korea's second-largest city and its largest port. Population is resident registration population (주민등록인구) as at 2025-12-31, from the same Ministry of the Interior and Safety annual report used for Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan and Sejong — a different series from the Statistics Korea register-based census (등록센서스) that the South Korea and Seoul pages use, though the two series are usually close. Area is this same report's official administrative-area figure at 2025-12-31, not a figure computed from the map outline. 🔴 Both wired geometry sources fail this site's land-outline bar for Busan, previously documented in docs/island-data-sources.md: OpenStreetMap's administrative relation encloses about 2,018 km² (+161%, a maritime jurisdiction boundary, not a coastline) and Natural Earth's feature measures about 282 km² (−63%, omitting large parts of the city's outer districts). The outline instead uses GADM 4.1's Busan polygon, which measures about 783 km² against the 771.67 km² official figure (+1.5%) — within the tolerance already accepted for Macao and Singapore on this site. GADM is licensed for non-commercial use only; Atlas is not commercialised. See docs/island-data-sources.md.

Taipei City: Taipei City, the special municipality alone. Area and registered population come from the same Ministry of the Interior table at the same year-end 2025 reference date, so the density is like for like. The figure excludes New Taipei City: “Taipei” in everyday speech often means the two cities together (2,324.3664 km², 6,484,338 residents) or the wider metropolitan area, which has no single official boundary. Population is household registration, not resident presence.

In-depth guide

How should Busan and Taipei City be understood in context?

Busan is South Korea’s second-largest city and its busiest port, yet it still holds nearly three times as much land per resident as Taipei City. Comparing two dense East Asian port-and-capital cities makes clear that "big city" does not mean one fixed density — geography sets a floor and a ceiling that population growth works within.

A port city built into hills

Busan’s harbour is hemmed in by mountains, which is why so much of the city climbs the slopes above it — Gamcheon Culture Village, now a tourist attraction, began as exactly this kind of hillside housing. Taipei City sits in a flatter basin but a much smaller one, ringed by hills that keep its own buildable core compact. Neither city’s administrative area is mostly built-up ground; both include mountain land that carries almost no one.

The area comparison on this page is therefore not "Busan’s built city versus Taipei’s built city" — it is both cities’ full administrative territories, hills included. Reading the ratio that way explains why Busan’s average density can be well under half of Taipei City’s even though anyone who has stood in Nampo-dong or Seomyeon would call central Busan dense.

Two different population systems, one close reading

Busan’s figure is resident registration population (주민등록인구), reported by South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety in the same annual report already used for Daegu, Daejeon, Ulsan and Sejong on this site. That is a different system from the register-based census (등록센서스) behind the South Korea and Seoul entries, though the two normally sit close together. Taipei City uses Taiwan’s household registration system. None of the three is a visitor count or a daytime-population estimate.

The outline itself was the last piece to fall into place. OpenStreetMap’s Busan relation and Natural Earth’s Busan feature were both already rejected on this site (+161% and −63% against official land, respectively) before a GADM 4.1 polygon measuring within about 1.5% became available.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Which is bigger, Busan or Taipei City?

Busan is bigger, with a land area about 2.84× that of Taipei City (771.7 vs 271.8 km²).

How do Busan and Taipei City differ in area, population and density?

Busan is 2.84× the size of Taipei City — 771.7 km² vs 271.8 km². Population is 1.33× higher; average density is 46.8% as high. Each side’s scope and reference date are set out under “Boundaries and definitions” on this page.

Is Busan more crowded than Taipei?

No, on these averages Taipei City is more than twice as dense: about 8,976 residents per km² against Busan’s roughly 4,200. Busan’s much larger land area, not a smaller population, is what produces the gap.

Why did Busan not have an Atlas page before?

Its outline did. OpenStreetMap’s administrative relation for Busan encloses a maritime jurisdiction boundary at roughly 2.84 times its true land area, and Natural Earth’s feature omits large outer districts, undercounting by more than half. A GADM 4.1 polygon measuring within about 1.5% of the official figure resolved this in September 2026.

Sources

Outline data:

GADM 4.1 · Free for academic and other non-commercial use; redistribution or commercial use requires permission