Matchup file

China vs France

126 shared metrics.

ChinaLeads in 57

vs126 shared

FranceLeads in 69

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France leads by 12 metrics. Use the same instinct in a quick real-data brawl.

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Country briefing

What matters for both sides

Short real-world notes so the comparison reads like more than a stat strip.

China

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: People's Republic of China.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

China's population began shrinking in 2022, its first annual decline in about six decades.

World Bank

France

Quick notes before you compare the numbers.

Identity

Formal name: French Republic.

CIA 2026

Curated stat

France spans many time zones because its overseas territories sit across multiple oceans.

CIA

Analysis

France leads in 69 of 126 shared metrics, while China leads in 57.

China's Coal Electricity Share is 174.3x that of France (54.35% vs 0.31%).

China's Foreign Patents is 114.8x that of France (159.0K vs 1.4K).

China's Domestic Patents is 105.6x that of France (1.43M vs 13.4K).

China's Irrigated Land is 47.5x that of France (690.1K km² vs 14.2K km²).

China's Total CO2 Emissions is 46.8x that of France (13.1K Mt CO2e vs 274.45 Mt CO2e).

Key Comparisons

Coal Electricity ShareChina leads

China

54.35%

France

0.31%

Foreign PatentsChina leads

China

159.0K

France

1.4K

Domestic PatentsChina leads

China

1.43M

France

13.4K

Irrigated LandChina leads

China

690.1K km²

France

14.2K km²

Total CO2 EmissionsChina leads

China

13.1K Mt CO2e

France

274.45 Mt CO2e

Shipping TrafficChina leads

China

22.5K km

France

4.0K km

468% higher

Comparison of China and France across 126 metrics
				Winner
Coal Electricity Share	54.35%	0.31%	17432% higher	China
Foreign Patents	159.0K	1.4K	11482% higher	China
Domestic Patents	1.43M	13.4K	10558% higher	China
Irrigated Land	690.1K km²	14.2K km²	4747% higher	China
Total CO2 Emissions	13.1K Mt CO2e	274.45 Mt CO2e	4682% higher	China
Shipping Traffic	268.99M	6.47M	4059% higher	China
Water Withdrawal	568.48 B m³	24.43 B m³	2227% higher	China
Population	1.41B	68.51M	1954% higher	China
Electric Generating Capacity	2.95B kW	151.46M kW	1847% higher	China
Electricity Generation	10.1K TWh	557.73 TWh	1706% higher	China
Land Area	9.39M km²	539.0K km²	1642% higher	China
Merchant Fleet Size	8.3K	553	1403% higher	China
Scientific Publications	898.9K	65.9K	1264% higher	China
Forest Area	2.26M km²	175.0K km²	1189% higher	China
Electricity Carbon Intensity	525.34 gCO2/kWh	41.44 gCO2/kWh	1168% higher	China
Political Corruption Index	0.55	0.06	889% higher	China
Air Passengers	619.22M	64.64M	858% higher	China
Armed Forces Personnel	2.54M	304.0K	734% higher	China
GDP (Nominal)	$18,743,803,170,827.2	$3,160,442,622,465.08	493% higher	China
Land Border Length	22.5K km	4.0K km	468% higher	China
Railway Length	150.0K km	27.9K km	438% higher	China
GDP Growth Rate	5.0%	1.2%	318% higher	China
Time Zones Count	4.0 time zones	1.0 time zones	300% higher	China
Railway Network	109.8K km	27.7K km	296% higher	China
Road Traffic Death Rate	17.4 per 100k	4.7 per 100k	270% higher	China
Air Pollution (PM2.5)	34.81 µg/m³	9.6 µg/m³	263% higher	China
Coastline Length	14.5K km	4.9K km	199% higher	China
CO2 Per Capita	8.7 t/person/yr	4.0 t/person/yr	118% higher	China
Solar Electricity Share	11.1%	5.6%	99% higher	China
Nobel Laureates Born per Million People	0.01 per 1M people	0.86 per 1M people	99% lower	France
EV Chargers per 100,000 PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	0.22 per 100k people	29.75 per 100k people	99% lower	France
Firms Making Informal Payments	0.29% of firms	11.61% of firms	98% lower	France
Liberal Democracy Index	0.04	0.80	95% lower	France
Freedom of Expression Index	0.04	0.96	95% lower	France
FDI Inflows (% GDP)	0.10% of GDP	1.6% of GDP	94% lower	France
McDonald's Outlets per Million PeopleSource: © OpenStreetMap contributors - Open Database License (ODbL)	1.6 per 1M people	23.88 per 1M people	93% lower	France
Nuclear Electricity Share	4.9%	64.8%	92% lower	France
Electoral Democracy Index	0.07	0.86	92% lower	France
Firms Asked for Bribes	0.14% of firms	1.6% of firms	91% lower	France
Inflation Rate	0.20%	2.0%	90% lower	France
Firms Hit by Power Outages	3.7% of firms	29.49% of firms	88% lower	France
Milk Consumption per Person	32.66 kg/person/yr	241.31 kg/person/yr	86% lower	France
Health Spending Per Capita	$672.45	$4,865.18	86% lower	France
Highest Elevation	8.8K m	4.8K m	84% higher	China
Minimum Paid Vacation Days	5.0 days/yr	25 days/yr	80% lower	France
Tourist Arrivals	30.40M	117.11M	74% lower	France
GNI Per Capita	$13,660	$45,160	70% lower	France
Tax Revenue (% GDP)	7.6% of GDP	23.08% of GDP	67% lower	France
Vehicles per 1,000 People	212.35 per 1k people	636.58 per 1k people	67% lower	France
Water Stress (%)	20.21%	12.21%	65% higher	China
Researchers	1.8K per 1M	5.2K per 1M	64% lower	France
Nurses & Midwives	3.5 per 1k	9.4 per 1k	62% lower	France
Homicide Rate	0.50 per 100k	1.3 per 100k	62% lower	France
Border Neighbors	16	10	60% higher	China
Alcohol Consumption	4.6 L/adult/yr	10.32 L/adult/yr	56% lower	France
GDP Per Capita (PPP)	$27,104.87	$61,290.42	56% lower	France
Health Spending (% GDP)	5.4% of GDP	11.88% of GDP	55% lower	France
Beer Consumption	1.1 L/person/yr	2.4 L/person/yr	52% lower	France
Airports	571	1.2K	52% lower	France
Government Debt (% GDP)	47% of GDP	98.5% of GDP	52% lower	France
Imports (% GDP)	17.18% of GDP	34.22% of GDP	50% lower	France
Teen Birth Rate	5.2 per 1k	3.5 per 1k	49% higher	China
Suicide Rate	8.9 per 100k	16.58 per 100k	46% lower	France
Protected Land (%)	15.6%	28.6%	45% lower	France
Child Mortality	6.2 per 1k births	4.3 per 1k births	44% higher	China
Exports (% GDP)	20.02% of GDP	33.89% of GDP	41% lower	France
Unemployment Rate	4.6%	7.4%	38% lower	France
Women's Political Empowerment	0.59	0.93	37% lower	France
Fertility Rate	1.2 children/woman	1.9 children/woman	37% lower	France
Corruption Perceptions Index	43 pts	66 pts	35% lower	France
Elderly Population (%)	14.67%	22.15%	34% lower	France
Birth Rate	7.3 per 1k	10.88 per 1k	33% lower	France
Smoking Rate	23.4%	34.6%	32% lower	France
Tobacco Use Prevalence	22.7% of adults	33.6% of adults	32% lower	France
Infant Mortality	4.5 per 1k births	3.4 per 1k births	32% higher	China
Wind Electricity Share	10.73%	8.2%	31% higher	China
Average Weekly Work Hours	46.1 hrs/week	35.3 hrs/week	31% higher	China
Dependency Ratio	44.24% of working-age pop.	63% of working-age pop.	30% lower	France
Meat Consumption per Person	60.6 kg/person/yr	83.05 kg/person/yr	27% lower	France
Forest Coverage (%)	24.03%	32.48%	26% lower	France
Women in Parliament (%)	26.54%	36.05%	26% lower	France
Obesity Rate	8.2%	10.92%	25% lower	France
Education Spending (% GDP)	4.0% of GDP	5.3% of GDP	25% lower	France
Seafood Consumption per Person	40.33 kg/person/yr	33.64 kg/person/yr	20% higher	China
Death Rate	8.0 per 1k	9.9 per 1k	20% lower	France
Insufficient Physical Activity	23.84% of adults	29.74% of adults	20% lower	France
Population Density	150.26 /km²	126.86 /km²	18% higher	China
Hospital Beds (per 1,000)	5.0 per 1k	6.0 per 1k	17% lower	France
Military Spending	1.7% of GDP	2.1% of GDP	17% lower	France
Youth Unemployment Rate	15.79% of youth labor force	18.89% of youth labor force	16% lower	France
Urban Population (%)	65.89%	78.8%	16% lower	France
All-Time Olympic Medals	819 medals	977 medals	16% lower	France
Credit Card Ownership	46.03% of adults	39.76% of adults	16% higher	China
ATMs per 100,000 Adults	72.03 per 100k	84.58 per 100k	15% lower	France
R&D Spending (% GDP)	2.6% of GDP	2.2% of GDP	14% higher	China
High-Tech Exports (%)	26.28%	23.14%	14% higher	China
All-Time Olympic Gold Medals	330 gold medals	289 gold medals	14% higher	China
Human Development Index	0.80	0.92	13% lower	France
Inequality (Gini)	36	31.8	13% higher	China
Mobile Subscriptions (%)	132 per 100 people	117 per 100 people	13% higher	China
Spirits Consumption	2.5 L/person/yr	2.2 L/person/yr	12% higher	China
Capital Elevation	43 m	48 m	10% lower	France
Digital Payments Used	88.72% of adults	98.45% of adults	10% lower	France
University Enrollment Rate	76.88%	70.45%	9% higher	China
Energy Use (Per Capita)	2.9K kg oil eq/person	3.1K kg oil eq/person	9% lower	France
UNESCO World Heritage Sites	60 sites	55 sites	9% higher	China
Hypertension Prevalence	27.3% of adults	29.6% of adults	8% lower	France
Broadband Access (%)	45 per 100 people	49 per 100 people	8% lower	France
Life Evaluation Score	6.1 pts	6.6 pts	8% lower	France
Median Age	39.1 years	41.8 years	7% lower	France
Agricultural Land (%)	55.43%	52.5%	6% higher	China
Renewable Energy (%)	15.2%	16.2%	6% lower	France
Life Expectancy	78.0 years	82.9 years	6% lower	France
Renewable Energy (%)	17.47%	16.47%	6% higher	China
Doctors (per 1,000)	3.1 per 1k	3.3 per 1k	5% lower	France
Internet Users (%)	92%	88.65%	4% higher	China
Youth Population (%)	16.01%	16.51%	3% lower	France
Can Raise Emergency Money	95.1% of adults	92.06% of adults	3% higher	China
Electricity Use (Per Capita)	6.5K kWh/person	6.4K kWh/person	2% higher	China
Food Waste per Person	141.64 kg/person/yr	139 kg/person/yr	2% higher	China
Sanitation Access (%)	97.27%	98.64%	1% lower	France
Firms with Female Top Manager	19.6% of firms	19.89% of firms	1% lower	France
Electricity Access (%)	100%	100%	equal	China
Lowest Elevation	-154 m	-2 m	ranked lower	France
Official Languages Count	1.0	1.0	equal	China
Current Account Balance (% of GDP)	3.7% of GDP	-0.4% of GDP	ranked higher	China

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Analysis

France leads in 69 of 126 shared metrics, while China leads in 57.

China's Coal Electricity Share is 174.3x that of France (54.35% vs 0.31%).

China's Foreign Patents is 114.8x that of France (159.0K vs 1.4K).

China's Domestic Patents is 105.6x that of France (1.43M vs 13.4K).

China's Irrigated Land is 47.5x that of France (690.1K km² vs 14.2K km²).

China's Total CO2 Emissions is 46.8x that of France (13.1K Mt CO2e vs 274.45 Mt CO2e).

Key Comparisons

Coal Electricity ShareChina leads

China

54.35%

France

0.31%

Foreign PatentsChina leads

China

159.0K

France

1.4K

Domestic PatentsChina leads

China

1.43M

France

13.4K

Irrigated LandChina leads

China

690.1K km²

France

14.2K km²

Total CO2 EmissionsChina leads

China

13.1K Mt CO2e

France

274.45 Mt CO2e

Shipping TrafficChina leads

China

268.99M

France

6.47M

Coal Electricity Share

54.35%

0.31%

Foreign Patents

159.0K

1.4K

Domestic Patents

1.43M

13.4K

Irrigated Land

690.1K km²

14.2K km²

Total CO2 Emissions

13.1K Mt CO2e

274.45 Mt CO2e

Shipping Traffic

268.99M

6.47M

Water Withdrawal

568.48 B m³

24.43 B m³

Population

1.41B

68.51M

Electric Generating Capacity

2.95B kW

151.46M kW

Electricity Generation

10.1K TWh

557.73 TWh

Land Area

9.39M km²

539.0K km²

Merchant Fleet Size

8.3K

553

Scientific Publications

898.9K

65.9K

Forest Area

2.26M km²

175.0K km²

Electricity Carbon Intensity

525.34 gCO2/kWh

41.44 gCO2/kWh

Political Corruption Index

0.55

0.06

Air Passengers

619.22M

64.64M

Armed Forces Personnel

2.54M

304.0K

GDP (Nominal)

$18,743,803,170,827.2

$3,160,442,622,465.08

Land Border Length

22.5K km

4.0K km

China vs France

Think you can spot the next winner?

What matters for both sides

China

France

Analysis

Key Comparisons

All Metrics

Coal Electricity Share

Foreign Patents

Domestic Patents

Irrigated Land

Total CO2 Emissions

Shipping Traffic

Water Withdrawal

Population

Electric Generating Capacity

Electricity Generation

Land Area

Merchant Fleet Size

Scientific Publications

Forest Area

Electricity Carbon Intensity

Political Corruption Index

Air Passengers

Armed Forces Personnel

GDP (Nominal)

Land Border Length

Railway Length

GDP Growth Rate

Time Zones Count

Railway Network

Road Traffic Death Rate

Air Pollution (PM2.5)

Coastline Length

CO2 Per Capita

Solar Electricity Share

Nobel Laureates Born per Million People

EV Chargers per 100,000 People

Firms Making Informal Payments

Liberal Democracy Index

Freedom of Expression Index

FDI Inflows (% GDP)

McDonald's Outlets per Million People

Nuclear Electricity Share

Electoral Democracy Index

Firms Asked for Bribes

Inflation Rate

Firms Hit by Power Outages

Milk Consumption per Person

Health Spending Per Capita

Highest Elevation

Minimum Paid Vacation Days

Tourist Arrivals

GNI Per Capita

Tax Revenue (% GDP)

Vehicles per 1,000 People

Water Stress (%)

Researchers

Nurses & Midwives

Homicide Rate

Border Neighbors

Alcohol Consumption

GDP Per Capita (PPP)

Health Spending (% GDP)

Beer Consumption

Airports

Government Debt (% GDP)

Imports (% GDP)

Teen Birth Rate

Suicide Rate

Protected Land (%)

Child Mortality

Exports (% GDP)

Unemployment Rate

Women's Political Empowerment

Fertility Rate

Corruption Perceptions Index

Elderly Population (%)

Birth Rate