Does Japan have more people than Russia?

Here the surprise runs the other way from most population duels. Japan feels crowded, with giant cities and a famously dense population, so it is easy to assume it has more people than Russia. It has fewer, though the totals are closer than the map suggests: about 123 million in Japan and 144 million in Russia, World Bank estimates for 2025. Russia has 45 times as much land, about 16.4 million km² against 364,500 km², yet only about 20 million more people. That is because the two countries are settled so differently. Japan has about 338 people per km² of land, while large parts of Russia are sparsely populated, leaving it with fewer than 9 people per km² on average. Size on the map and the feeling of crowding both mislead here, in opposite directions.