Place comparison

Seoul compared with Taiwan: area, population and density

Taiwan has about 60 times Seoul’s land, yet Seoul holds about 40% as many people as all of Taiwan, making it about 24 times as dense.

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

Direct answer

How different are Seoul and Taiwan?

Seoul covers 605.2 km²; Seoul's area is about 1.7% of Taiwan's. Its reported population is 9,335,444; Seoul's population is about 40.1% of Taiwan's. By average density, Seoul's population density is 24 times Taiwan's.

Area difference

Seoul's area is about 1.7% of Taiwan's 605.2 km² · 36,197.3 km²

Population difference

Seoul's population is about 40.1% of Taiwan's 9,335,444 · 23,299,132

Density difference

Seoul's population density is 24 times Taiwan's 15,425.4 /km² · 643.7 /km²

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

Straight-line distance between geometric centres: about 1653 km; time difference: 1 hours.

On a familiar scale

Seoul ≈ 56% of Changhua County (reference rung) 65 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

One city of 605 km² holds about 9.3 million people — two in five of Taiwan’s entire population.

Geography and shape

Seoul Special City is South Korea’s capital, spread along the Han River and ringed by mountains. It is the city government of 25 districts, not the much larger Seoul Capital Area. Taiwan is a mountainous island of about 36,000 km² including its outlying islands.

Population context

Seoul has 9,335,444 people (2024 register-based census) on 605.2 km², about 15,400 per km². Taiwan has 23,299,132 registered residents on 36,197 km², about 644 per km². Even Taipei City, at about 8,975 per km², is under two-thirds of Seoul’s average.

Boundaries and definitions

Seoul’s population is a register-based census that counts everyone usually resident in the city, including about 367,000 foreign residents; Taiwan’s is household registration. Seoul’s area is registered cadastral land. To compare Seoul with a Taiwanese city on similar terms, see Seoul and Taipei City.

Seoul: Seoul Special City, the 25-district city government of 605.2 km². It is not the Seoul Capital Area, the commuter region of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, which is roughly twenty times larger and holds about 26.3 million people. Population is the 2024 register-based census total: everyone usually resident inside the city boundary on 1 November 2024, including 367,291 foreign residents, which is a different universe from the resident-registration series readers may know. Area is registered cadastral land at 31 December 2024, summed from the ministry's parcel-level file because no single line publishes the city total; the same method reproduces South Korea's national figure exactly. The two reference dates are two months apart.

Taiwan: Registered population and official administrative land area.

In-depth guide

How should Seoul and Taiwan be understood in context?

Seoul is one city; Taiwan is a whole island. Taiwan has about 60 times Seoul’s land, but Seoul holds about 9.3 million people — roughly two in every five of Taiwan’s entire population.

How concentrated Seoul is

Seoul averages about 15,400 people per km², about 24 times Taiwan’s national average of 644 and about 1.7 times Taipei City’s 8,975. Seoul’s 605 km² is about 2.2 Taipei Cities of land with about 3.8 times Taipei’s population.

And Seoul is only the core. The Seoul Capital Area — Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province — holds about 26.3 million people, more than Taiwan’s entire population.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Which is bigger, Seoul or Taiwan?

Taiwan is bigger, with a land area about 59.8× that of Seoul (605.2 vs 36,197.3 km²).

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

Seoul is 1.7% the size of Taiwan — 605.2 km² vs 36,197.3 km². Population is 40.1% as high; average density is 24× higher. Each side’s scope and reference date are set out under “Boundaries and definitions” on this page.

Is Seoul bigger than Taipei?

Yes. Seoul’s 605.2 km² is about 2.2 times Taipei City’s 271.8 km², and it has about 3.8 times the population.

What share of Taiwan’s population lives in a city the size of Seoul?

About 40%: Seoul’s 9.34 million against Taiwan’s 23.30 million, on under 2% of Taiwan’s land.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain