Place comparison
Hokkaido compared with Taiwan: area, population and density
One Japanese prefecture covers more than twice Taiwan’s administrative land while holding about a fifth of its population, which leaves Hokkaido with far more land per resident.
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
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The detailed guide below compares Hokkaido with Taiwan. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.
Direct answer
How different are Hokkaido and Taiwan?
Hokkaido covers 78,419.2 km²; Hokkaido's area is 2.17 times Taiwan's. Its reported population is 5,043,000; Hokkaido's population is about 21.6% of Taiwan's. By average density, Hokkaido's population density is about 9.9% of Taiwan's.
Population difference
Hokkaido's population is about 21.6% of Taiwan's 5,043,000 · 23,400,220Density difference
Hokkaido's population density is about 9.9% of Taiwan's 64.3 /km² · 646.5 /km²On a familiar scale
- Hokkaido ≈ 26.6 × Kaohsiung City 15,550 m² of land per resident
- Taiwan ≈ 12.3 × Kaohsiung City 1,547 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
The area here excludes the Northern Territories, so that the figure, the outline and the population all describe the same ground.
Geography and shape
Hokkaido is a single large northern island with a broad interior, whereas Taiwan concentrates a smaller total land area around one mountainous main island and its outlying counties. On a common scale the prefecture is visibly larger than the whole of Taiwan, which is the part most readers find hard to picture from the numbers alone.
Population context
Hokkaido’s population is roughly a fifth of Taiwan’s while its land is more than twice as large, so its average density is around a tenth of Taiwan’s. That gap, rather than the area ratio by itself, is what explains why distances there feel different: the same road length passes far fewer settlements.
Boundaries and definitions
Japan’s published area for Hokkaido is 83,422.27 km², which includes four disputed island groups totalling 5,003.05 km² that have been administered by Russia since 1945. This page uses 78,419.22 km² without them, because the rendered outline also excludes them, no census is conducted there, and Japan’s own Statistics Bureau subtracts them before computing Hokkaido’s density. Taiwan uses official administrative land area and registered population.
Hokkaido: Hokkaido excluding the Northern Territories. Japan's published prefectural area of 83,422.27 km² includes the four disputed island groups (5,003.05 km²), which have been administered by Russia since 1945; this page subtracts them so that the area, the outline and the population all describe the same ground. Japan's own Statistics Bureau makes the same subtraction before computing Hokkaido's population density, and no census is conducted in the disputed islands. Population is a prefectural estimate published only to the nearest thousand.
Taiwan: Registered population and official administrative land area.
In-depth guide
How should Hokkaido and Taiwan be understood in context?
This page sets a single Japanese prefecture against an entire country’s administrative land, so the asymmetry is deliberate and should stay visible in any quotation. The more useful reading is not the area gap but how much land sits behind each resident on either side.
The Northern Territories decide which area you use
Japan’s published area for Hokkaido is 83,422.27 km². That total includes four disputed island groups amounting to 5,003.05 km², which have been administered by Russia since 1945. A reader who takes the published figure at face value is measuring land that the population figure does not cover.
This page uses 78,419.22 km², without those island groups, so that area, outline and population all describe the same ground. Japan’s Statistics Bureau makes the same subtraction before computing Hokkaido’s density. When you compare a Hokkaido figure found elsewhere with this one, check which of the two areas it is built on before concluding that they disagree.
Land per resident, not the area ratio
Hokkaido holds around 64 people per square kilometre. The Taiwan side of this page is the administrative total, 36,197.3371 km² with 23,400,220 residents, which produces a far higher figure. That difference in land per resident, rather than the area ratio alone, is what explains why travelling in Hokkaido feels unlike travelling in Taiwan.
An area ratio only says how many times one shape fits inside the other. Density says how much room each resident’s share represents, which is closer to what a traveller actually notices between towns. Two places can sit at the same area ratio and still be settled in completely different ways.
Keep the mismatched units visible
One side is a prefecture inside Japan; the other is a whole country’s administrative land, offshore counties included. The result is therefore not a statement about Japan and Taiwan, and it should never be relabelled as one. It is a statement about one prefecture and one country.
If the question is about national scale, the Japan-and-Taiwan page answers it with matched units. If the question is about how empty the north of Japan feels compared with home, this page is the right one, provided the label travels with the number.
Questions people ask
About this geographic comparison
Is Hokkaido bigger than Taiwan?
Yes. Even excluding the disputed Northern Territories, one Japanese prefecture covers more than twice Taiwan’s total administrative land area. The exact current multiple is calculated above.
Why not use Japan’s published 83,422 km²?
Because the outline on this page does not include the Northern Territories, and neither does the population. Pairing the larger area with that map and that population would make the density wrong by about 6%.
Does this compare Hokkaido with Taipei?
No. The Taiwan side is the whole country’s administrative land and registered population, including the offshore counties, not any single city.
Sources
- Geospatial Information Authority of Japan: Area by prefecture and municipality as of October 1, 2024 (E2-No.86)
- Statistics Bureau of Japan: Population estimates as of October 1, 2024, table 5 by prefecture
- Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan: Land area, households and population by region
Outline data:
- Natural Earth · Public domain