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.

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.

In 2025, 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 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars, whereas Mexico's amounted to almost 1.8 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.

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 *** 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 *** percent, followed by Mexico with a *** percent growth rate.

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 *** million U.S. dollars, followed by Mexico, with *** million U.S. dollars.

In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for around ****** 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 ****** million and ***** 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 ** 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 ** percent of people living in South America have access to these networks, against ** percent of those living in Central America and only ** percent of those living in the Caribbean.

In 2021, Brazil was the country with the highest market size of organic products within a group of selected countries in Latin America. That year, the organic products industry in the South American country attained a value of nearly ** million U.S. dollars. Mexico followed, with a market value of close to ** million U.S. dollars.

As of mid-2025, Mexico led the list of Latin American countries with the largest number of hotel rooms under construction, with more than ****** in total. The Dominican Republic followed second by a wide margin.

The three largest milk producing countries in Latin America are Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. In 2023, Brazil produced around **** million metric tons of milk, while Mexico produced ****, and Argentina produced ****.

In 2025, it was estimated that Brazil was the largest consumer of milk in the selected Latin American and Caribbean countries, with a consumption volume of about ***** million metric tons. Ranking second was Mexico, with a consumption volume of about ***** million metric tons.

In 2022, Mexico was the country in Latin America with the largest pay TV subscribers base with ** million subscribers, followed by Brazil with ***** million and Argentina with **** million. By 2028, Mexico is expected to decrease their number of pay TV subscribers, while Brazil is expected to see a slight increase.

In 2024, Brazil was the leading Latin American country in terms of installed renewable energy capacity in the region, with nearly 213.9 gigawatts. Brazil's installed energy capacity represented approximately 58 percent of the region's renewable energy capacity in 2024, Mexico trailed in second, with a capacity of 34 gigawatts.

Brazil is the Latin American country that registered the largest tree cover loss in the past decade. In 2022 alone, over 3.3 million hectares of tree cover were destroyed in the South American country. That same year, Bolivian forests saw their area reduced by approximately 600,000 hectares, the second highest tree cover loss in the region. Overall, more than 70 million hectares of tree cover were lost in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2010 and 2022. These estimates do not take into account tree cover gain throughout the same period.

As of July 2024, Brazil had the largest Netflix library in Latin America – nearly **** thousand titles were available on the streaming service in that country. Mexico and Argentina followed, with over *** thousand titles. Meanwhile, Netflix's library in Honduras had fewer than **** thousand films and series. The revenue of Netflix in Latin America grew by nine percent in 2023 compared to previous year.

In 2022, tax revenues in Brazil represented 33.3 percent of its GDP. This made it the country with the largest volume of taxes in relation to gross domestic product in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Barbados and Argentina, tax revenue was equal to approximately one third of GDP. Guyana, on the other hand, was the nation with the lowest share of tax to GDP, at only 10.6 percent, almost eleven percentage points below the regional average, 21.5 percent.

As of the first quarter of 2024, Brazil was the country with the largest gross public debt among the Latin American and Caribbean nations shown in this graph. At that point in time, the gross public debt held by Brazil amounted to nearly **** trillion U.S. dollars, whereas in Mexico the government's debt was estimated at almost *** billion U.S. dollars.

Mexico was the Latin American country with the largest number of archaeological sites as of October 2022, with 141 in total. These sites are home to archaeological or historical vestiges within a natural area.

In 2019, Telcel - an América Móvil company - was the largest telecommunication provider in Mexico, with a market share of 71.9 percent. Claro - also an América Móvil company - was the largest provider in Colombia, Paru, and Argentina. In Brazil the largest provider was Vivo - a company that belongs to the Spanish provider Telefónica.

Among selected Latin American countries in 2021, Mexico had the largest population that identify themselves as indigenous with over 25.28 million inhabitants. It was followed far behind by Peru, with 8.67 million. During 2020, Colombia and Ecuador ranked as the Latin American countries with the highest share of indigenous people living in poverty.