Place comparison

Singapore compared with Hong Kong: area, population and density

Singapore has about two thirds of Hong Kong’s land and about four fifths of its residents, so its average density is the higher of the two.

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 Singapore with Hong Kong. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.

Direct answer

How different are Singapore and Hong Kong?

Singapore covers 744.3 km²; Singapore's area is about 66.8% of Hong Kong's. Its reported population is 6,111,175; Singapore's population is about 81.1% of Hong Kong's. By average density, Singapore's population density is 1.21 times Hong Kong's.

Area difference

Singapore's area is about 66.8% of Hong Kong's 744.3 km² · 1,114.6 km²

Population difference

Singapore's population is about 81.1% of Hong Kong's 6,111,175 · 7,534,200

Density difference

Singapore's population density is 1.21 times Hong Kong's 8,210.6 /km² · 6,759.7 /km²

On a familiar scale

Singapore ≈ 69% of Changhua County 122 m² of land per resident
Hong Kong ≈ the size of Changhua County 148 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

Both totals cover the whole territory, including the parts that are not built up — which is why neither average matches what the busiest districts feel like.

Geography and shape

Singapore is one main island with a ring of smaller ones, largely flat and heavily engineered, and its land area still grows through reclamation. Hong Kong combines a compact urban core with the New Territories, country parks and many islands, so a large share of its land is hills, reservoirs and protected countryside. Similar orders of magnitude, very different proportions of buildable ground.

Population context

Singapore reports fewer residents than Hong Kong but on proportionally less land, which leaves it with the higher territory-wide average. Both averages are pulled down by land that is not residential at all, so the density in the densest housing estates of either place is far above these numbers.

Boundaries and definitions

Singapore uses total land area surveyed as at year-end 2025 and total population at end-June 2025, a six-month gap; the population counts citizens, permanent residents and about 1.91 million non-residents by place of usual residence. Hong Kong uses the land area and year-end population of the entire Special Administrative Region. Singapore’s outline is a coarse 40-point boundary that predates much of the reclaimed land and should be read as a silhouette.

Singapore: Total land area surveyed by the Singapore Land Authority as at 31 December 2025, covering the main island and its offshore islands. The figure rises with reclamation and is restated annually — it was 735.7 km² a year earlier. Population is the Department of Statistics total population at end-June 2025: citizens 3,660,683, permanent residents 543,832 and about 1.91 million non-residents, counted by place of usual residence, so tourists and short-term visitors are excluded. The two dates are six months apart, and the outline traces the main island, Pulau Ujong, which is about 88% of the official area — Pulau Tekong, Jurong Island, Pulau Ubin, Sentosa and some sixty smaller islands are counted in the figure but not drawn.

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

In-depth guide

How should Singapore and Hong Kong be understood in context?

Two compact territories whose published totals cover everything inside the boundary, built up or not. Neither average therefore matches the districts a visitor is most likely to walk through.

Territory-wide averages include land nobody lives on

Singapore’s 744.3 km² is total land, reservoirs, airports, industrial estates and military ground included. Hong Kong’s 1,114.57 km² is the whole Special Administrative Region, so country parks, reservoirs, protected countryside and outlying islands are inside the same boundary as the towers. Both denominators are considerably larger than the land people actually live on.

The consequence is that both averages sit below the density of the busiest housing estates on either side. That does not make them wrong; it makes them territory-scale measures. Use them to understand how much land each place has to work with, and use district-level data for anything about a street.

Which Singapore population concept is in use

The figure on this page is total population, 6,111,175, counted by place of usual residence. It includes citizens, permanent residents and about 1.91 million non-residents. Hong Kong’s 7,534,200 is the territory-wide population of the whole region.

Switching to the resident concept, or to citizens only, would cut the density shown here by roughly a third or more. That is a large enough swing to change any conclusion built on the number. The concept therefore has to travel with the figure every time it is quoted.

An area figure that is restated every year

Singapore’s land area is restated annually as reclamation completes. An undated Singapore area figure therefore goes stale faster than most, and two sources a few years apart can both be correct. Record the reference date alongside the number.

The outline drawn on this page traces only the main island, about 88% of the official area. The area figure and the shape beside it are therefore not covering exactly the same ground. Read the outline as a silhouette for scale rather than as the boundary the number was measured from.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Is Singapore smaller than Hong Kong?

Yes by land area, at roughly two thirds. The exact current ratio is calculated above from the two official figures.

Which Singapore population figure is this?

Total population, which includes non-residents. Reporting resident population or citizen population instead would cut the density shown by roughly a third or more.

Does Singapore’s area change?

Yes. It is restated annually as reclamation completes; the figure was 735.7 km² a year before the one shown here. Undated Singapore area figures go stale quickly.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain