Place comparison

Busan compared with Taiwan: area, population and density

Taiwan has about 47 times Busan’s land and about 7.2 times its population, so Busan is about 6.5 times as dense as Taiwan’s national average.

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 Taiwan. Change the selector above and the page follows, so the reading always matches the tool.

Direct answer

How different are Busan and Taiwan?

Busan covers 771.7 km²; Busan's area is about 2.1% of Taiwan's. Its reported population is 3,241,600; Busan's population is about 13.9% of Taiwan's. By average density, Busan's population density is 6.53 times Taiwan's.

Area difference

Busan's area is about 2.1% of Taiwan's 771.7 km² · 36,197.3 km²

Population difference

Busan's population is about 13.9% of Taiwan's 3,241,600 · 23,299,132

Density difference

Busan's population density is 6.53 times Taiwan's 4,200.8 /km² · 643.7 /km²

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

Straight-line distance between geometric centres: about 1509 km; time difference: 1 hours.

On a familiar scale

Busan ≈ 72% of Changhua County (reference rung) 238 m² of land per resident
Taiwan ≈ 12.3 × Kaohsiung City (reference rung) 1,554 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

A single port city against a whole island: Busan is closer in size to a Taiwanese city than to Taiwan.

Geography and shape

Busan is South Korea’s second-largest city, a mountainous port metropolis on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Taiwan is an island of about 36,000 km² with outlying islands, a central mountain range and most of its people on the western plains.

Population context

Busan’s 3,241,600 residents on 771.67 km² average about 4,200 per km²; Taiwan’s 23,299,132 on 36,197 km² average about 644. Busan is closer to Taiwanese cities than to Taiwan as a whole: Taipei City averages about 8,975 per km² on 271.8 km².

Boundaries and definitions

Busan uses resident registration population and official administrative area at 2025-12-31 from South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety; Taiwan uses household registration at year-end 2025 and the national administrative land area, outlying islands included. If you meant to compare Busan with a Taiwanese city, the Busan–Taipei City page is the like-for-like pairing.

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.

Taiwan: Registered population and official administrative land area.

In-depth guide

How should Busan and Taiwan be understood in context?

Readers who search “Busan area Taiwan” usually want a sense of scale for a trip. The honest answer is that Busan is a city and Taiwan is a country-sized island: Taiwan has about 47 times Busan’s land. The more useful yardstick is a Taiwanese city.

Busan on a Taiwanese scale

At 771.67 km², Busan is about 2.84 times Taipei City and about 38% of New Taipei City. Its 3.24 million residents are a little more than Taichung City’s 2.87 million, and about 14% of Taiwan’s 23.3 million.

Busan averages about 4,200 people per km², roughly 6.5 times Taiwan’s national average of 644 — but less than half of Taipei City’s 8,975, because Busan’s territory includes steep hills and coastline around the harbour.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Which is bigger, Busan or Taiwan?

Taiwan is bigger, with a land area about 46.9× that of Busan (771.7 vs 36,197.3 km²).

How do Busan and Taiwan differ in area, population and density?

Busan is 2.1% the size of Taiwan — 771.7 km² vs 36,197.3 km². Population is 13.9% as high; average density is 6.53× higher. Each side’s scope and reference date are set out under “Boundaries and definitions” on this page.

Is Busan bigger than Taipei?

Yes. Busan’s 771.67 km² is about 2.84 times Taipei City’s 271.80 km², though Taipei City has the higher density.

What share of Taiwan’s population does Busan equal?

About 14%: 3.24 million against 23.30 million — roughly Taichung City plus a bit more.

Sources

Outline data:

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