Cape Town
2,455 km²
Sydney
12,368 km²
South Africa
Australia
Area Comparison
Cape Town is 5.0x smaller than Sydney
Population Comparison
Cape Town has 1.4x fewer people than Sydney
Yes — Sydney is 5.0x larger than Cape Town by area. Sydney spans 12,368 km² (4,775 mi²) while Cape Town covers 2,455 km² (948 mi²) — a difference of 9,913 km². You could fit Cape Town inside Sydney approximately 5 times.
To put Cape Town's size in perspective, its area of 2,455 km² is roughly the same size as Moscow. Meanwhile, Sydney at 12,368 km² is about 2.0x the size of Shanghai.
Picture Cape Town another way: its area is large enough to fit about 344,000 American football fields, 42 times the area of Manhattan, or 23 times the area of Paris. Sydney works out to about 1,700,000 American football fields, 120 times the area of Paris, or 100 times the area of San Francisco.
Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's second-largest city by population, after Johannesburg, and the largest city in the Western Cape. The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.
Known as "The Mother City", Cape Town covers 2,455 km² with a population of 3.8 million. The city was established in 1652. Cape Town is known for Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, Robben Island, among other attractions.
Cape Town is South Africa's oldest city, founded in 1652 and home to the seat of the national Parliament.
Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and is the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west, and about 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Hawkesbury River in the north and north-west, to the Royal National Park and Macarthur in the south and south-west.
Often called "Sydneysiders", Sydney has an area of 12,368 km² and is home to 5.3 million people. The city dates back to 1788. Visitors come for Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and much more. Getting around is easy with the Sydney Trains.
Sydney stretches roughly 80 km from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Blue Mountains in the west.
Cape Town has a population density of 1,540 people per km² — a relatively spread-out city. Sydney, with 429 people per km², is a low-density, sprawling urban area. Cape Town is dramatically more crowded, with 3.6x the population density.
Size Ratio
Cape Town fits inside Sydney ~5 times
Density Gap
Cape Town is 3.6x more densely populated
History
Cape Town is ~136 years older
Cape Town covers 2,455 km². Cities with a similar urban footprint include Moscow (2,511 km²), Lima (2,672 km²), Tokyo (2,194 km²), Ho Chi Minh City (2,061 km²), or Shenzhen (1,997 km²).
Sydney covers 12,368 km². Cities with a similar urban footprint include Chengdu (14,378 km²), Xi'an (10,097 km²), Melbourne (9,993 km²), Brisbane (15,826 km²), or Beijing (16,411 km²).
The straight-line distance from Cape Town to Sydney is 11,012 km (6,842 miles), with an estimated flight time of ~13h 27m.
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