Spain is the bigger country, with 506,030 km² against Italy's 301,340 km², but Italy has more people: about 58.9 million in 2026 against Spain's 49.8 million. Italy is also slightly richer, with a nominal GDP per capita of about $46,500 compared with Spain's $41,600 (IMF estimates for 2026). Rome is Italy's capital and Madrid is Spain's; Italian and Spanish (Castilian) are the national languages, with Catalan, Galician and Basque co-official in parts of Spain and French, German, Ladin and Slovene co-official in parts of Italy. Italy has the higher mountains: even leaving aside Mont Blanc, whose summit area is disputed with France, Gran Paradiso at 4,061 metres tops Spain's highest point, Teide, at 3,715 metres. The questions below settle each comparison with figures.
Which Is Bigger, Italy or Spain?
Spain, by a wide margin. Its 506,030 km² make it the largest country in Southern Europe and give it about 1.7 times Italy's area. Most of that land lies on the Iberian Peninsula, which Spain shares with Portugal, Andorra and the British territory of Gibraltar. The rest is made up of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic off Morocco, and the two North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
Italy's 301,340 km² take the form of a long, narrow peninsula reaching into the Mediterranean, plus the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The shape matters more than the size: no point in Italy is very far from the sea, and including its islands Italy has about 7,600 kilometres of coastline on the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic seas. Italy also completely surrounds two independent states, San Marino and Vatican City. Spain's interior, by contrast, is dominated by the Meseta Central, a high plateau that leaves Madrid far from any coast. Italy would fit into Spain with room left over for a country the size of Greece.
Does Italy or Spain Have More People?
Italy does. ISTAT, the Italian statistics office, put the population at 58,934,336 in 2026. Spain's national statistics institute counted about 49.8 million in the same year. The gap of roughly nine million is shrinking, because Italy's population has been falling while Spain's has been growing, largely through immigration. Italy's total fertility rate was 1.18 in 2024, one of the lowest in the world, and deaths have outnumbered births there since the 1990s. The number of migrants living in Spain jumped from about 924,000 in 2000 to 5.6 million in 2010 during its pre-crisis boom, and immigration pushed the total past 49 million for the first time in 2025. Even so, much of rural Spain is emptying, a trend known as la España vacía, or Empty Spain.
Because Italy is smaller and more populous, it is far more crowded. Italy has roughly 196 people per km², about twice Spain's 98. The difference shows on the ground: northern Italy's Po Valley is one of Europe's most built-up lowlands, while large parts of the Spanish interior, in Castile, Aragon and Extremadura, are thinly settled. The capitals follow the same pattern in reverse, though. Madrid had over 3.4 million people in the city proper in 2025 and about 6.8 million in its metropolitan area, making it the second-largest city in the European Union after Berlin. Rome's municipality holds about 2.7 million.
Is Italy or Spain the Richer Country?
Italy, narrowly. The IMF's 2026 estimates give Italy a nominal GDP per capita of about $46,505 and Spain about $41,563. Adjusted for purchasing power the order stays the same, at roughly $65,800 for Italy and $59,200 for Spain. Italy's total economy is the eighth-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and it has the second-largest manufacturing sector in Europe.
Averages hide the internal contrasts. Italy's wealth is concentrated in the industrial north, around Milan, Turin and the Veneto, while the south, the Mezzogiorno, has long been poorer; from about 1880 that gap helped push millions of Italians to emigrate to the Americas. Spain's economic history in recent decades has been more volatile. It joined the euro in 1999 and grew quickly, then suffered a severe recession after 2008, when unemployment rose steeply. Both countries have used the euro since it replaced the lira and the peseta as cash in 2002.
Which Is Higher: Mont Blanc, Etna or Teide?
Italy, however you count. Mont Blanc, at about 4,807 metres the highest mountain in Europe outside the Caucasus, sits right on the French–Italian border, and ownership of the summit area has long been disputed between the two countries. If the summit is left aside, Italy's highest mountain lying wholly within its territory is Gran Paradiso, at 4,061 metres, the only peak over 4,000 metres entirely inside Italy.
Spain's highest point is Teide, an active volcano on the island of Tenerife, at 3,715 metres. Measured from its base on the ocean floor it rises about 7,500 metres. On the mainland the top is Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada near Granada, at 3,479 metres, the highest point on the whole Iberian Peninsula. So Italy has the higher Alps, and Spain the highest island summit in the Atlantic.
Both countries also have active volcanoes. Mount Etna on Sicily measured 3,403 metres in September 2024, making it the tallest Italian peak south of the Alps, and it is by far the largest of Italy's four active volcanoes; Vesuvius, which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD, is another. In the whole European and North African region west of the Black Sea, only Teide is taller than Etna.
Which Has the Longer River, the Po or the Tagus?
Spain wins this one too. The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula at 1,007 kilometres. It rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, runs 816 kilometres through Spain past Toledo, forms 47 kilometres of the border and reaches the Atlantic at Lisbon in Portugal. The longest river wholly in Spain is the Ebro, about 930 kilometres from Cantabria to its delta on the Mediterranean in southern Catalonia.
Italy's longest river, the Po, is 652 kilometres long. It rises at Pian del Re under Monviso in the Cottian Alps and crosses the north of the country to the Adriatic. What it lacks in length it makes up in volume: the Po carries more water than many longer rivers and, with the Rhône and the Nile, is one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest discharge. Spain's rivers, by contrast, are often seasonal; of its roughly 1,800 rivers and streams, only the Tagus exceeds 960 kilometres.
Which Gets More Tourists, and Which Has More UNESCO Sites?
Spain gets more visitors. In 2025 it recorded about 97 million international tourists, the eighth record year in a row, making it the second most visited country in the world. Italy received about 61.5 million, ranking fifth. Tourism made up 12.6 percent of Spain's GDP in 2024 once domestic travel is included.
Italy has more heritage on paper. With 62 sites on the World Heritage List, it has more than any other country, just ahead of China's 61. Spain has 50, the fifth-highest total after Italy, China, France (56) and Germany (55). Italy's first listing, the rock drawings of Valcamonica, came in 1979; Spain's first five were inscribed in 1984. Our guide to UNESCO sites in Spain goes through the Spanish list.
Is Spain Older Than Italy as a Country: 1479 or 1861?
As a unified state, Spain is almost four centuries older. The dynastic union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, dates from 20 January 1479. Philip II settled his court in Madrid in 1561, and the Nueva Planta decrees of the early 18th century turned Spain into a centralised state under the Bourbons.
Italy was divided among kingdoms, duchies, papal lands and foreign powers until the Risorgimento. After Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaign in Sicily and Naples, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March 1861 under Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy, and Rome became its capital in 1871. The story is told in more detail in our piece on the unification of Italy. In the 20th century the two took different routes to democracy. Italy voted to become a republic in a referendum on 2 June 1946. Spain remained under Francisco Franco until his death in November 1975, then returned to a constitutional monarchy with the constitution of 1978.
Which Has More Official Languages, Spain or Italy?
Counted strictly, neither: each country has four regional languages with co-official status. The difference is in how many people speak them. Spanish, or Castilian, is the official language of the whole state and is spoken by about 99 percent of the population. Alongside it, Catalan (called Valencian in the Valencian Community), Galician, Basque and the Aranese form of Occitan are co-official in their regions. Catalan or Valencian is the first language of about 10.5 percent of Spaniards, Galician of 3.8 percent and Basque of 1.4 percent.
Italy has one national language, Italian, with its co-official languages confined to small border regions: French in the Aosta Valley, German in South Tyrol, Ladin in parts of South Tyrol and Trentino, and Slovene in the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine. Italian law recognises twelve historical minority languages in all, but Spain's regional languages reach far more people. Put all the answers together and the pattern is clear. Spain is larger, longer-rivered and more visited, while Italy is more populous, a little richer, denser, higher and holds more World Heritage sites. For the Spanish side of the landscape in more depth, from the Meseta to the Canaries, read our guide to the geography of Spain.