If anyone is interested in anecdotal data [0][1] regarding sentence length for equivalent meaning, I have to use both French and English every day, alternating between them (spoken and written) all the time. English is almost always shorter than French, which is more verbose. I am used to "thinking" in whatever language I'm using to talk/write and have noticed many times that I'm a bit slower in French, even if it's technically my native language. It might also be that French seems to have more alternatives to say the same thing in different ways, but that could just be just me.
[0] C'est presque toujours plus long en français qu'en anglais.
[1] It's almost always shorter in English than in French.
I think French spelling plays a part here, though. If I were to write your example phrase in French written as pronounced using Finnish language spelling rules, it would look like this:
"Se preskö tuzuur ply lon on franse kon angle."
This "phonetic compression" made the printed sentence about 25% shorter.
I have the same experience in Portuguese (my native language). Romance languages tend to be more verbose (also anecdotal personal evidence). But, in a way, my feeling is that modern English has substantially more words than Portuguese – which, I suppose, makes sense. English is under a much greater creative pressure due to its wider audience (English as a global language).
Using your example sentence (armchair laboratory):
[0] É quase sempre mais curto em inglês do que em português.
[1] It's almost always shorter in English than in Portuguese.
[0] C'est presque toujours plus long en français qu'en anglais. [1] It's almost always shorter in English than in French.