Place comparison

Tokyo’s 23 wards compared with Hong Kong: area, population and density

Hong Kong has more land than Tokyo’s 23 special wards, yet the wards hold more residents, so their average density is more than twice as high.

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 Tokyo 23 Special Wards with Hong Kong. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.

Direct answer

How different are Tokyo 23 Special Wards and Hong Kong?

Tokyo 23 Special Wards covers 627.5 km²; Tokyo 23 Special Wards's area is about 56.3% of Hong Kong's. Its reported population is 9,873,999; Tokyo 23 Special Wards's population is 1.31 times Hong Kong's. By average density, Tokyo 23 Special Wards's population density is 2.33 times Hong Kong's.

Area difference

Tokyo 23 Special Wards's area is about 56.3% of Hong Kong's 627.5 km² · 1,114.6 km²

Population difference

Tokyo 23 Special Wards's population is 1.31 times Hong Kong's 9,873,999 · 7,534,200

Density difference

Tokyo 23 Special Wards's population density is 2.33 times Hong Kong's 15,735.2 /km² · 6,759.7 /km²

On a familiar scale

Tokyo 23 Special Wards ≈ 58% of Changhua County 64 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 names are routinely used for something larger. This page compares the 23 wards, not Tokyo Metropolis, with the whole Hong Kong SAR, not its urban core.

Geography and shape

The 23 wards form a continuous built-up area across the Tokyo lowland and the bayfront. Hong Kong combines a dense 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 land totals therefore sit on very different amounts of buildable ground.

Population context

The wards hold more residents on less land, which produces the higher average density. Hong Kong’s territory-wide average is held down by the land that is not settled at all, so its urban districts are far denser than the number here suggests.

Boundaries and definitions

The 23 wards are a statistical aggregate, not a government: each ward is its own local authority. Their area is an official reference value because five wards have partly undetermined boundaries, and it includes 4.68 km² of river-mouth and bay landfill assigned to no individual ward. Hong Kong uses the land area and year-end population of the entire Special Administrative Region.

Tokyo 23 Special Wards: The 23 special wards only, not Tokyo Metropolis and not the wider Greater Tokyo area. The wards hold about 70% of the metropolis population on under 30% of its land; the metropolis additionally contains 26 cities, 13 towns and villages and the Izu and Ogasawara islands. The area is a Geospatial Information Authority reference value because five wards have partly undetermined boundaries, and it includes 4.68 km² of river-mouth and bay landfill not assigned to any individual ward. Daytime population is far larger than the resident count: the 2020 census recorded 12.35 million people in the wards on a weekday.

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

In-depth guide

How should Tokyo 23 Special Wards and Hong Kong be understood in context?

Two of the most densely settled places in East Asia are finally put on a comparable footing here: both sides are compact, and both are routinely mistaken for something larger than the figures describe. Getting the boundaries right matters more on this page than on any other pairing in the set.

What “Tokyo” means on this page

In ordinary conversation, Tokyo usually means Tokyo Metropolis, 2,199.94 km² with 14,192,184 people, or the still wider Greater Tokyo region. This page uses only the 23 special wards: 627.51 km² and 9,873,999 residents. Swapping one definition for another changes both terms of the density at once, which is why mismatched Tokyo figures circulate so widely.

Hong Kong is misread in the opposite direction. Its 1,114.57 km² is the whole Special Administrative Region, including country parks and outlying islands, not the harbour-side core that the name brings to mind. So on this page the tightly drawn side is Tokyo’s and the generously drawn side is Hong Kong’s.

Residents are not the weekday load

The 2020 census recorded a daytime population of 12,346,348 in the 23 wards against 9,733,276 residents, a day/night ratio of 126.8%. Resident density therefore understates how many people the wards actually hold on a working day. The gap is commuters, not a counting error.

Residency is still the right basis for the comparison, because it is the figure both sides publish and it is defined consistently over time. It just cannot be read as a measure of how crowded a street feels at midday. For that question, the daytime figure is the one to reach for.

The ward area is a reference value

The 627.51 km² total is published as an official reference value because five of the wards have partly undetermined boundaries. It is the best available number rather than a settled one. Atlas uses it because no better aligned figure exists, and says so instead of presenting it as final.

At this scale the uncertainty is small enough that the overall picture holds. It is large enough, though, that small differences between the two sides should not be treated as meaningful. Keep the note attached whenever a precise figure is quoted.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

Is this comparing Tokyo with Hong Kong?

Only the 23 special wards. Tokyo Metropolis is 2,199.94 km² with 14,192,184 residents and also contains 26 cities, 13 towns and villages and the Izu and Ogasawara islands. Greater Tokyo is larger still.

Do the wards really hold more people than Hong Kong?

Yes, on less land. Both counts include foreign residents. The exact current ratio is calculated above from the two official figures.

Does resident density describe a weekday?

No. The 2020 census recorded a daytime population of 12,346,348 in the wards against 9,733,276 residents, a day-night ratio of 126.8%. Commuters are outside any resident-based density figure.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain