The statistic shows the largest countries in Central America, based on land area. Nicaragua is the largest country in the subregion, with a total area of over 130 thousand square kilometers, followed by Honduras, with more than 112 thousand square kilometers.

Based on land area, Brazil is the largest country in Latin America by far, with a total area of over 8.5 million square kilometers. Argentina follows with almost 2.8 million square kilometers. Cuba, whose surface area extends over almost 111,000 square kilometers, is the Caribbean country with the largest territory.

Brazil: a country with a lot to offer

Brazil's borders reach nearly half of the South American subcontinent, making it the fifth-largest country in the world and the third-largest country in the Western Hemisphere. Along with its landmass, Brazil also boasts the largest population and economy in the region. Although Brasília is the capital, the most significant portion of the country's population is concentrated along its coastline in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

South America: a region of extreme geographic variation

With the Andes mountain range in the West, the Amazon Rainforest in the East, the Equator in the North, and Cape Horn as the Southern-most continental tip, South America has some of the most diverse climatic and ecological terrains in the world. At its core, its biodiversity can largely be attributed to the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, and the Amazon river, the world's largest river. However, with this incredible wealth of ecology also comes great responsibility. In the past decade, roughly 80,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon were destroyed. And, as of late 2019, there were at least 1,000 threatened species in Brazil alone.

The statistic shows the largest countries in South America, based on land area. Brazil is the largest country by far, with a total area of over 8.5 million square kilometers, followed by Argentina, with almost 2.8 million square kilometers.

As of 2023, Guatemala was the most populated country in Central America with over 17.5 million inhabitants. Honduras followed in second with over 10 million. In contrast, Belize was the least populated with less than half a million inhabitants.

In 2023, it was estimated that approximately 664 million people lived in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil is the most populated country in the region, with an estimated 216.4 million inhabitants in that year, followed by Mexico with more than 128.5 million.

In 2024, Brazil and Mexico were expected to be the countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean. In that year, Brazil's GDP could reach an estimated value of 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, whereas Mexico's amounted to almost two trillion U.S. dollars. GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a given year. It measures the economic strength of a country and a positive change indicates economic growth.

As of 2023 estimates, Guatemala registered the highest gross domestic product (GDP) in Central America with around 102.04 billion USD, closely followed by Costa Rica. In contrast, Belize ranked with the lowest GDP with just over three billion.

Panama had the largest e-commerce market size of the Central American countries examined, amounting to approximately 4.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. Guatemala and Costa Rica followed, with over three billion dollars each. That year, retail accounted for most of e-commerce in Central America.

Among the presented countries, Mexico has the most households with a pay TV subscription with nearly 23.4 million subscribers in 2020. Brazil and Argentina followed with 18.5 and 9.5 million subscribers respectively.

From January to September 2021 more than 400 million U.S. dollars worth of imports were generated from non-alcoholic beverages among Central American countries. The largest buyer of non-alcoholic beverages in the region was Guatemala with 108.7 million U.S dollars, followed by Honduras, Panama, El Salvador, and Nicaragua who imported between 91 to 50 million U.S. dollars worth of these beverages.

Brazil, the most populated country and the economy with the highest GDP in Latin America, had the largest market research revenue in the region in 2022. Out of all the Latin American and Caribbean countries included in the study, Brazil ranked first, with a market research revenue of 423 million U.S. dollars, followed by Mexico, with 345 million U.S. dollars.

In the beginning of March 2020, Chile reported its first cases of COVID-19. By the end of the month, online marketplace Mercado Libre had seen online orders grow by 125 percent, making it the Latin American country with the largest increase in online orders during this period. Meanwhile, Colombia ranked second, with online orders growing by 119 percent, followed by Mexico with a 112 percent growth rate.

In 2022, Panama, Guatemala, and, Costa Rica were the largest electricity-producing countries in Central America, each with an output of more than 12 terawatt-hours. Costa Rica also had the largest share of electricity produced from renewables in Central America that year.

As of February 2025, Brazil had approximately 183 million internet users. That is more than Mexico and Argentina combined, the two ranking second and third respectively. Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic featured the largest number of internet users.

In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for around 490.42 million social media users, ranking as the fifth most popular region for this type of platform worldwide. Brazil and Mexico were the countries with the continent’s biggest social network audiences, registering 165.46 million and 98.21 million users each in the measured period. Additionally, Brazil is also the fifth largest market for social media worldwide.

Meta’s new contenders

The products owned by social media giant Meta (formerly known as Facebook Inc.) still reign across the social media landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean, as Facebook is still used by almost 78 percent of the continent’s population. However, new competitors like Telegram and content-focused networks like TikTok are challenging Meta’s hegemony. The ByteDance-owned company TikTok has already surpassed Instagram in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru regarding the number of users, becoming the second-largest network in these countries.

Hardships on internet access

Even though Latin America increases its connectivity in traffic via mobile devices, the inequality in access to the internet throughout the continent also is also reflected in the presence of its populations on social media platforms. Almost 80 percent of people living in South America have access to these networks, against 73 percent of those living in Central America and only 55 percent of those living in the Caribbean.

Venezuela is the Latin American country with the largest gold reserves. As of June 2024, Venezuela's Central Bank held up to 161 tons of gold reserves. Brazil and Mexico completed the top three gold holding countries in the region with 130 and 120 tons, respectively.

In 2023, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas were the states with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean. The average GDP generated per person in the Bahamas amounted to 34,749 U.S. dollars, whereas the average wealth created per capita in Puerto Rico was estimated at around 34,749 U.S. dollars. In that same year, this region's lowest GDP per capita was that of Haiti, at less than 1,693 U.S. dollars per person per year. The largest economies in Latin America GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. It is an important indicator to measure the economic strength of a country and the average wealth of its population. By far, the two largest economies in the region are Brazil and Mexico, both registering GDPs three times bigger than the third place, Argentina. Nonetheless, they are the two most populated countries by a great margin.
Key economic indicators of Latin America Latin America emerges as an important region in the world economy, as of 2023, around 7.3 percent of the global GDP, a similar share to the Middle East. Nevertheless, the economic development of most of its countries has been heavily affected by other factors, such as corruption, inequality, inflation, or crime and violence. Countries such as Venezuela, Suriname, and Argentina are constantly ranking among the highest inflation rates in the world. While Jamaica, Ecuador, and Haiti rank as some of the most crime-ridden states.

Guyana was the South American country 20360the highest gross national income per capita, with 20,360 U.S. dollars per person in 2023. Uruguay ranked second, registering a GNI of 19,530 U.S. dollars per person, based on current prices. Gross national income (GNI) is the aggregated sum of the value added by residents in an economy, plus net taxes (minus subsidies) and net receipts of primary income from abroad. Which are the largest Latin American economies? Based on annual gross domestic product, which is the total amount of goods and services produced in a country per year, Brazil leads the regional ranking, followed by Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Many Caribbean countries and territories hold the highest GDP per capita in this region, measurement that reflects how GDP would be divided if it was perfectly equally distributed among the population. GNI per capita is, however, a more exact calculation of wealth than GDP per capita, as it takes into consideration taxes paid and income receipts from abroad. How much inequality is there in Latin America? In many Latin American countries, more than half the total wealth created in their economies is held by the richest 20 percent of the population. When a small share of the population concentrates most of the wealth, millions of people don't have enough to make ends meet. For instance, in Brazil, about 5.32 percent of the population lives on less than 3.2 U.S. dollars per day.

In 2024,Mexico led the ranking of countries with the largest number of active military personnel in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 412,000 soldiers. It was followed by Brazil with 360,000 military personnel.

This statistic shows a ranking of the countries with the largest volumes of food waste in Latin America and the Caribbean as of July 2017, measured in million tons. At that point in time, Argentina ranked first in terms of food waste with more than 15 million tons of waste.