The map above shows the UK’s regions compared to US states with similar populations. Data for the UK comes from the 2011 Census and data for the US comes from the 2010 US Census.
For those that aren’t familiar with UK regions or US states here are the key population figures in order of size:
- South East (8.63 million) = New Jersey (8.79 million)
- London (8.17 million) = Virginia (8.00 million)
- North West (7.05 million) = Washington (state not DC) (6.72 million)
- East of England (5.85 million) = Maryland (5.77 million)
- West Midlands (5.60 million) = Wisconsin (5.69 million)
- Scotland (5.31 million) = Minnesota (5.30 million)
- South West (5.29 million) = Minnesota (5.30 million)
- Yorkshire and the Humber (5.28 million) = Colorado (5.03 million)
- East Midlands (4.53 million) = Louisiana (4.53 million)
- Wales (3.06 million) = Iowa (3.05 million)
- North East (2.60 million) = Nevada (2.70 million)
- Northern Ireland (1.81 million) = West Virginia (1.85 million)
In total, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has a population of 63.18 million people in an area of 93,628 sq mi (242,495 sq km) vs the United States of America which has population of 309.35 million in an area of 3,805,927 sq mi (9,857,306 sq km).
Want to learn more about the history of the UK and US? Have a look at the following books:
- Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning
- God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World
- An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America
- White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America
Surprised by this post? Please share with a friend:
This country comparison is a concise, tabular overview of numerous data from our respective country pages for the United Kingdom and United States. For further information and explanations, we provide many details per country that go far beyond this comparison. For example, there are separate sub-pages for
both countries on economy, climate, energy, refugees, inflation, population and much more.
In addition, we offer several international comparisons on individual topics, which are also linked on this page.
General information
Population
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Quality of life
Values from 0 (bad) to 100 (very good)
See also: Explanations and country ranking on quality of life
Economy
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Infrastructure
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Energy balance
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Telecommunication
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Healthcare system
Details for the United Kingdom and the United States
Climate
We also provide a more detailed climate comparison of both countries.
The data for each country can be found here: United Kingdom and
United States
Native languages
Religions
Data inventory and updates
A country comparison like this can be based on several hundred individual data items from dozens of different sources. All data are based on the most recent data available to us. Most of them refer to the previous year and are updated around March of the following year. If a country has not yet published data for the most recent or penultimate year, we present the most recent official data. Updates are made on an ongoing basis depending on the subject area or source, so there is no single "cutoff date" for this comparison. Sources for almost all data can be found on our respective country pages.
United States is about 40 times bigger than United Kingdom.
United Kingdom is approximately 243,610 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making United States 3,937% larger than United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the population of United Kingdom is ~65.8 million people (266.9 million more people live in United States).
Tip: Try dragging the outline to reposition.
This to-scale map shows a size comparison of United Kingdom compared to United States. For more details, see an in-depth quality of life comparison of United States vs. United Kingdom using our country comparison tool.