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.

In 2023, Brazil ranked first by total population among the 24 territories presented in the ranking. Brazil's total population amounted to 211.14 million people, while Mexico and Colombia, the second and third territories, had records amounting to 129.74 million people and 52.32 million people, respectively.

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.

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.

As of August 2025, Brazil was home to ****** million Facebook users. In Latin America, it was followed by Mexico and Colombia with approximately *** million and ** million Facebook users, respectively. In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic was the country with the largest number of people on the social media platform. Facebook’s forecasted future Brazil is expected to continue building up its Facebook audience in the coming years. It is estimated that by 2025, the South American nation will reach nearly ***** million users on the social network. By that same year, more than ***** million Mexicans are forecast to be on Facebook, according to another source. Despite such awaited growth, Facebook’s market share decreased in most of the six largest Latin American countries between 2019 and 2020 – the exception was Chile, where an increase of *** percent was recorded. Concurrently, Instagram, also owned by Facebook, Inc., experienced an increase in its market share across the region. Pandemic Facebook posting In March 2020, when COVID-19 was officially characterized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic, Facebook users in Brazil made nearly ** percent more posts than they had during the same month a year prior. Furthermore, the contents of posts addressing the virus, made during the month of March throughout Latin America, were more visual than textual. Namely, ** percent of posts using the words ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ consisted of videos and almost ********* of them contained photos, whereas only *** percent included users’ statuses. At that same time, Latin American governments flocked to the social network to communicate with the region's inhabitants, increasing their Facebook posting behavior by almost ** percent in one year.

As of February 2025, more than ** percent of the population of Uruguay was on social media. On the other hand, approximately ** percent of Haitians used social networking platforms. Among the largest Latin American markets, Brazil had the lowest social media penetration rate at **** percent, just below Colombia and Argentina. Online networking among Chilean young adults intensifies Young adults are the primary audience of social media in Chile. Nearly half of all Facebook users in the South American country were between 18 and 34 years old. The same age group accounted for almost ** percent of Chilean users of LinkedIn. This generation has also been devoting more of its time to this type of online activity. Obstacles for the expansion of social media in Brazil A handful of issues still set part of Latin America's online population apart from social networks. Despite having the biggest social media audiences in Latin America, countries like Brazil and Mexico still struggled to provide internet access to their populations, thus hindering social media penetration rates.

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.

Mexico was the Latin American country with the largest number of hotel rooms in 2020. That year, Mexican hotel facilities recorded more than *** thousand rooms. With a difference of around *** thousand rooms, Brazil followed second on the list. Grupo Posadas from Mexico was the leading hotel chain in Latin America in 2020.

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.

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.

The Latin American country with the most significant information technology (IT) market in 2022 was Brazil, totaling ** billion U.S. dollars. Mexico ranked second, with an IT market value worth ** billion U.S. dollars, while Peru's IT market amounted to only *** billion U.S. dollars. In 2022, the most valuable segment in Brazil’s IT market was hardware, amounting to **** billion U.S. dollars, while the country’s software market was valued at **** billion U.S. dollars. Brazil’s software market In 2020, the most important segments of Brazil’s software market were software application, software development environment, and infrastructure and security, with the latter accounting for nearly ** percent of the country’s software market. At the same time, the market revenue of Software as a Service (SaaS) increased over the past years, peaking at *** billion U.S. dollars in 2020. This growth spike was almost double the value recorded in 2017. When it comes to regional distribution, over ** percent of Brazil’s software market was concentrated in the South-Eastern region in 2022. By contrast, the Northern part of the country accounted for approximately ***** percent of Brazil’s software market. Software companies in Brazil In 2022, more than ** thousand companies were operating in the Brazilian IT service industry, and approximately ***** thousand companies specialized in software development and production. One of the most important software companies is Totvs, which also operates in the United States, Portugal, and Latin America. In the first semester of 2021, the company generated **** billion Brazilian reals in revenue with their software services. Another software company that operates in Brazil, as well as in several other Latin American countries is Globant. In 2021, Globant’s revenue in Brazil amounted to almost ** million U.S. dollars. By contrast, Globant’s revenue in the U.S. totaled *** million U.S. dollars in the same year.

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.

Argentina scored 562 out of a maximum of 800 points in the English Proficiency Index 2023. That was the highest score among all Latin American countries included in the survey. The Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, also received the highest English proficiency score among all the Latin American cities analyzed. Mexico and Haiti received the lowest scores in the region.

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.

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.

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 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.

In 2023, four Caribbean nations were the countries with the highest gross national income per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean. On average, the national gross income amounted to around 31,990 U.S. dollars per person in the Bahamas, an island country which also had one of the highest gross domestic product per capita in this region. Outside the Caribbean Excluding the Caribbean, the economies with the highest national income per capita are generally located in South America, with the exceptions of Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico. Guyana leads among continental states with a national income of around 20.360 U.S. dollars per person. 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. The biggest economies Brazil and Mexico are still miles ahead in the race for the biggest economy of Latin America. As of 2023, both nations exceeded the two trillion U.S. dollars mark in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While Argentina's GDP, third place, slightly surpassed the 600 billion U.S. dollars. Nonetheless, both nations also ranked as the most populated by far in the region.

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.