Place comparison

Hong Kong compared with Taiwan: area, population and density

Hong Kong holds a substantial population in a small fraction of Taiwan’s land area, producing a much higher overall density.

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 detailed guide below compares Hong Kong with Taiwan. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.

Direct answer

How different are Hong Kong and Taiwan?

Hong Kong covers 1,114.6 km²; Hong Kong's area is about 3.1% of Taiwan's. Its reported population is 7,534,200; Hong Kong's population is about 32.2% of Taiwan's. By average density, Hong Kong's population density is 10.5 times Taiwan's.

Area difference

Hong Kong's area is about 3.1% of Taiwan's 1,114.6 km² · 36,197.3 km²

Population difference

Hong Kong's population is about 32.2% of Taiwan's 7,534,200 · 23,400,220

Density difference

Hong Kong's population density is 10.5 times Taiwan's 6,759.7 /km² · 646.5 /km²

On a familiar scale

Hong Kong ≈ the size of Changhua County 148 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

This uses Hong Kong’s total land area, including country parks and rural land, rather than only its built-up urban districts.

Geography and shape

Hong Kong’s territory combines a compact urban core, the New Territories, country parks and many islands. Taiwan is a much larger mountainous island. Comparing total land area avoids the misleading impression that Hong Kong consists only of the dense skyline around Victoria Harbour.

Population context

Hong Kong holds a substantial share of Taiwan’s population in a small fraction of its land. Its territory-wide average density is therefore several times higher, even though hills, reservoirs and protected rural land leave large areas less intensively settled.

Boundaries and definitions

Hong Kong uses the land area and year-end population of the entire Special Administrative Region. Taiwan uses official administrative land area and registered population. Neither side is limited to its urbanised footprint.

Hong Kong: Year-end population and total land area of the Hong Kong SAR.

Taiwan: Registered population and official administrative land area.

In-depth guide

How should Hong Kong and Taiwan be understood in context?

Hong Kong occupies only a small fraction of Taiwan’s land while holding a much larger share of its population. That relationship produces the clearest density contrast in the current Atlas set, but the territory-wide average still hides large internal differences.

The skyline is not the whole territory

The familiar image of Hong Kong is a compact wall of towers around Victoria Harbour. The official land figure also includes the New Territories, country parks, reservoirs, rural settlements and outlying islands. Atlas uses that complete territorial boundary rather than the built-up footprint.

Taiwan likewise includes mountain ranges, protected land and offshore islands. Comparing complete territories is more consistent than clipping both places to urbanized land, but it should not be mistaken for a comparison of usable building area.

Why the average density becomes so high

Hong Kong’s population remains large relative to its limited land. Even after rural and protected areas are included in the denominator, the territory-wide result is far above Taiwan’s national average. Individual urban districts can be denser still.

Taiwan’s national average combines dense western cities with mountainous and sparsely settled areas. The contrast is therefore useful for national or territorial scale, not for deciding whether one downtown street feels busier than another.

Questions this page can and cannot answer

It can answer how much land the full Hong Kong SAR has relative to Taiwan, how their reported populations compare, and what average density follows from those figures. It also makes the difference visible without enlarging Hong Kong independently.

It cannot explain housing floor area, housing prices, commuting pressure or available developable land. Those are related to density but require building, terrain, planning and economic data that are outside this comparison.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Is Hong Kong really only a few percent of Taiwan’s area?

Yes when total land area is compared. The exact current share is calculated above from the two official area figures.

Does Hong Kong’s area include country parks and outlying islands?

Yes. The territorial land-area figure includes urban districts, rural land, country parks and islands within the Hong Kong SAR.

Why is Hong Kong much denser than Taiwan?

Hong Kong has far less land while retaining a large population. The density shown is a territory-wide average, not the much higher density of individual urban districts.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain