Place comparison

Okinawa compared with Taiwan: area, population and density

Okinawa Prefecture is much smaller than Taiwan, yet the two have a remarkably similar overall population 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 Okinawa Prefecture with Taiwan. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.

Direct answer

How different are Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan?

Okinawa Prefecture covers 2,282.1 km²; Okinawa Prefecture's area is about 6.3% of Taiwan's. Its reported population is 1,467,065; Okinawa Prefecture's population is about 6.3% of Taiwan's. By average density, Okinawa Prefecture's population density is about 99.4% of Taiwan's.

Area difference

Okinawa Prefecture's area is about 6.3% of Taiwan's 2,282.1 km² · 36,197.3 km²

Population difference

Okinawa Prefecture's population is about 6.3% of Taiwan's 1,467,065 · 23,400,220

Density difference

Okinawa Prefecture's population density is about 99.4% of Taiwan's 642.9 /km² · 646.5 /km²

On a familiar scale

Okinawa Prefecture ≈ 77% of Kaohsiung City 1,556 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 prefecture is not just Okinawa Island. Its administrative outline stretches across the Miyako and Yaeyama island groups.

Geography and shape

Okinawa Prefecture is a chain of separated island groups spread across a wide sea area. Taiwan has a much larger continuous main island. The land-area comparison counts land only, so the prefecture’s broad maritime reach does not add ocean surface to its area.

Population context

Area and population occupy nearly the same share of Taiwan in this comparison, which is why their average densities are close. That similarity describes the prefecture as a whole and should not be read as evidence that every Okinawan island is as densely settled as Taiwan.

Boundaries and definitions

Okinawa here means the full prefecture, including the Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama island groups. It is not a comparison between Okinawa Island and Taiwan. Taiwan is measured using its official administrative land area and registered population.

Okinawa Prefecture: The full prefecture, including the Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama island groups.

Taiwan: Registered population and official administrative land area.

In-depth guide

How should Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan be understood in context?

Okinawa and Taiwan create an unusually useful comparison: their total area and population move in roughly similar proportions, so their reported average densities are close. The similarity ends quickly once the geographic shape and administrative boundary are considered.

A similar density across very different shapes

Taiwan is dominated by one large mountainous island. Okinawa Prefecture is an administration spread across separated island groups. Dividing population by land produces a similar average, but the same formula cannot show the water gaps, ferry or flight connections, and concentration on particular islands.

The outline matters here because a prefecture can have a broad maritime reach without counting the sea as land area. A tiny-looking main island on one map is not the same object as the full prefecture used by the statistics.

Prefecture, main island and city are different units

Travel conversations often use “Okinawa” to mean the main island or the area around Naha. Official prefectural statistics include the Miyako and Yaeyama groups as well. Atlas uses the prefecture because the area and population sources can then describe the same administration.

If the question is how large Okinawa Main Island is, or how dense Naha feels, this page is too broad. Those should become separate place records only after island-level or city-level population, area and outline sources are aligned.

How to use the comparison for travel planning

Use the numbers to understand the prefecture’s total scale, then return to an island-level map for routes. A prefecture-wide density is helpful background for settlement scale, but it cannot estimate driving time, public transport coverage or the amount of activity near a hotel.

The most useful takeaway is therefore not that Okinawa is a miniature Taiwan. It is that a similar population-per-land result can emerge from two very different geographic systems.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Does Okinawa mean Okinawa Island or Okinawa Prefecture?

It means Okinawa Prefecture. The statistics and outline include its major island groups, not only Okinawa Island.

Why are Okinawa and Taiwan close in population density?

Okinawa’s land area and population are both a similar fraction of Taiwan’s totals. Dividing population by land area therefore produces close prefecture-wide and Taiwan-wide averages.

Is ocean area included in Okinawa’s size?

No. The figure is land area. The map shows separated islands across the prefecture, but the sea between them is not counted as land.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain