Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world. As of 2024, 132.5 million people in Mexico spoke Spanish with a native command of the language. Colombia was the nation with the second-highest number of native Spanish speakers, at around 52.7 million. Spain came in third, with 48 million, and Argentina fourth, with 46 million. Spanish, a world language As of 2023, Spanish ranked as the fourth most spoken language in the world, only behind English, Chinese, and Hindi, with over half a billion speakers. Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries, the majority on the American continent, nonetheless, it's also one of the official languages of Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Other countries have a strong influence, like the United States, Morocco, or Brazil, countries included in the list of non-Hispanic countries with the highest number of Spanish speakers. The second most spoken language in the U.S. In the most recent data, Spanish ranked as the language, other than English, with the highest number of speakers, with 12 times more speakers as the second place. Which comes to no surprise following the long history of migrations from Latin American countries to the Northern country. Moreover, only during the fiscal year 2022. 5 out of the top 10 countries of origin of naturalized people in the U.S. came from Spanish-speaking countries.

The United States is the non-hispanic country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world, with approximately 41.89 million people with a native command of the language in 2024. However, the European Union had the largest group of non-native speakers with limited proficiency of Spanish, at around 28 million people. Furthermore, Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world as of 2024.

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.

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.

In 2023, California had the highest Hispanic population in the United States, with over 15.76 million people claiming Hispanic heritage. Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois rounded out the top five states for Hispanic residents in that year. History of Hispanic people Hispanic people are those whose heritage stems from a former Spanish colony. The Spanish Empire colonized most of Central and Latin America in the 15th century, which began when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492. The Spanish Empire expanded its territory throughout Central America and South America, but the colonization of the United States did not include the Northeastern part of the United States. Despite the number of Hispanic people living in the United States having increased, the median income of Hispanic households has fluctuated slightly since 1990. Hispanic population in the United States Hispanic people are the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, making Spanish the second most common language spoken in the country. In 2021, about one-fifth of Hispanic households in the United States made between 50,000 to 74,999 U.S. dollars. The unemployment rate of Hispanic Americans has fluctuated significantly since 1990, but has been on the decline since 2010, with the exception of 2020 and 2021, due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In 2023, around 43.37 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home. In comparison, approximately 998,179 people were speaking Russian at home during the same year. The distribution of the U.S. population by ethnicity can be accessed here. A ranking of the most spoken languages across the world can be accessed here.

In 2025, there were around 1.53 billion people worldwide who spoke English either natively or as a second language, slightly more than the 1.18 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers at the time of survey. Hindi and Spanish accounted for the third and fourth most widespread languages that year. Languages in the United States The United States does not have an official language, but the country uses English, specifically American English, for legislation, regulation, and other official pronouncements. The United States is a land of immigration, and the languages spoken in the United States vary as a result of the multicultural population. The second most common language spoken in the United States is Spanish or Spanish Creole, which over than 43 million people spoke at home in 2023. There were also 3.5 million Chinese speakers (including both Mandarin and Cantonese),1.8 million Tagalog speakers, and 1.57 million Vietnamese speakers counted in the United States that year. Different languages at home The percentage of people in the United States speaking a language other than English at home varies from state to state. The state with the highest percentage of population speaking a language other than English is California. About 45 percent of its population was speaking a language other than English at home in 2023.

As of 2023, around 37.99 million people of Mexican descent were living in the United States - the largest of any Hispanic group. Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, Cubans, and Dominicans rounded out the top five Hispanic groups living in the U.S. in that year.

The United States is the country with the largest number of Spanish language students, at approximately 8.59 million people in 2024. The second country is Brazil, with around 4.05 million students of the Spanish language. Moreover, the United States is also the non-hispanic country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world.

As of February 2025, English was the most popular language for web content, with over 49.4 percent of websites using it. Spanish ranked second, with six percent of web content, while the content in the German language followed, with 5.6 percent. English as the leading online language United States and India, the countries with the most internet users after China, are also the world's biggest English-speaking markets. The internet user base in both countries combined, as of January 2023, was over a billion individuals. This has led to most of the online information being created in English. Consequently, even those who are not native speakers may use it for convenience. Global internet usage by regions As of October 2024, the number of internet users worldwide was 5.52 billion. In the same period, Northern Europe and North America were leading in terms of internet penetration rates worldwide, with around 97 percent of its populations accessing the internet.

In 2025, approximately 23 million people lived in the São Paulo metropolitan area, making it the biggest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the sixth most populated in the world. The homonymous state of São Paulo was also the most populous federal entity in the country. The second place for the region was Mexico City with 22.75 million inhabitants. Brazil's cities Brazil is home to two large metropolises, only counting the population within the city limits, São Paulo had approximately 11.45 million inhabitants, and Rio de Janeiro around 6.21 million inhabitants. It also contains a number of smaller, but well known cities such as Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and many others, which report between 2 and 3 million inhabitants each. As a result, the country's population is primarily urban, with nearly 88 percent of inhabitants living in cities. Mexico City Mexico City's metropolitan area ranks sevenths in the ranking of most populated cities in the world. Founded over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in 1521 after the Spanish conquest as the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the city still stands as one of the most important in Latin America. Nevertheless, the preeminent economic, political, and cultural position of Mexico City has not prevented the metropolis from suffering the problems affecting the rest of the country, namely, inequality and violence. Only in 2023, the city registered a crime incidence of 52,723 reported cases for every 100,000 inhabitants and around 24 percent of the population lived under the poverty line.

In 2022, around 48.59 percent of New Mexico's population was of Hispanic origin, compared to the national percentage of 19.45. California, Texas, and Arizona also registered shares over 30 percent. The distribution of the U.S. population by ethnicity can be accessed here.

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, it was estimated that approximately 662 million people lived in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil is the most populated country in the region, with an estimated 211.999 million inhabitants in that year, followed by Mexico with more than 130.861 million.

Mexico was the most visited destination by international tourists in Latin America in 2024, totaling ** million tourist arrivals in that year. In the second place, but far behind, was the Dominican Republic. A global tourism powerhouse By developing airport infrastructure and calibrating new direct flights, Mexico has set international tourism high on its priorities list. At the forefront of Mexico's spike in international tourism is the FONATUR, or Mexico's National Fund for Tourism Development. The tourism body worked in the expansion of Cancun's airport and other four key tourist airports in the country. Plus, Mexico City's airport added new international direct flights in the *****, resulting in being rated as the best internationally connected airport in Latin America in 2019. With this and other developments in this sector, the North American country managed to rank among the top 20 destinations in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Ranking that year. South America's tourism leader Through its geographically diverse landscape and globally recognized wine industry, Argentina has grown its international tourism sector. The influx of foreign visitors to Argentina can in some way be attributed to the country's air-travel infrastructure. The national air carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, was one of the top airline operating in Latin America in 2019. That same year, passenger traffic to Argentinian airports grew by **** percent. Though in April 2020, in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of international air travel tourists to Argentina came to a complete halt, ensuing a similar fate of the global tourism industry.

Among selected Latin American countries in 2021, Guatemala had the highest share of population that identify themselves as indigenous with over 43.5 percent. Bolivia followed with 41 percent of the total inhabitants. Colombia and Ecuador ranked as the Latin American countries with the highest share of indigenous people living in poverty.

Crude oil reserves in Venezuela amounted to nearly 303 billion barrels in 2023. In addition to being the undisputed leader in Latin America, the country also boasted the largest crude oil reserves worldwide. Brazil followed in the region, although by a large margin, with 15.9 billion barrels. Central and South America in the global oil market Oil reserves in Central and South America have remained relatively stable in the past decade, at an average of 51 billion metric tons, or roughly 375 billion barrels. Due in large part to Venezuela’s contribution, the region accounts for roughly one fifth of proven global reserves, ranking only behind the Middle East. Despite its potential, however, it reported the lowest share of global oil production in 2019, with a participation of less than seven percent. Only one country in the region – Brazil – ranked among the world’s top ten oil-producing countries that year. Leading crude oil producers in Latin America While it holds the largest proved oil reserves, Venezuela ranked fifth in Latin America and the Caribbean based on petroleum production, trailing behind countries like Colombia and Argentina. Venezuela’s crude production decreased by more than threefold in the past decade, dropping below one million barrels per day. Meanwhile, oil production in Brazil has been on an increasing trend since 2013. The Portuguese-speaking country went on to surpass previous regional leaders Mexico and Venezuela in 2016 and remains the frontrunner since.

Cuba holds the record of Latin American and Caribbean countries or territories with the most Olympic gold medals: 86, counting the two medals won in the 2024 Games in Paris. Cuba is also the nation in this region with the highest total number of medals, with 74 more than Brazil, which is the second country in the ranking. Since when are Latin American and Caribbean nations part of the Olympics? Latin America has been present since the beginning of the modern international Olympic games. According to the Chilean Olympic Committee, Luis Subercaseaux Errázuriz participated in the games that took place in Athens in 1896. However, the International Olympic Committee lists this participation as a non-starter, meaning that the athlete did not run the races. In the following edition of the Olympics, which was also held in Paris, five Latin American and Caribbean nations competed: Argentina, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and Peru. Which are the most successful sports for the region? Athletics and boxing are the most successful Olympic sports in the region. Counting only the top eight countries, Latin American and Caribbean nations have won 59 gold medals in athletics (with Jamaica alone accounting for 27) and 54 in boxing (with Cuba responsible for 42 of them). In Paris 2024, Dominica, Guatemala, and Saint Lucia won their first gold medals.

According to the Corruption Perception Index, Uruguay was perceived as the least corrupt country in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024, with a score of 76 out of 100. Venezuela, on the other hand, was found to be the Latin American nation with the worst perceived level of corruption, at 10 points. A role model for Latin American democracy Uruguay has many factors contributing to its low public perception of corruption, from high average income levels to a close-knit urban population. At the forefront is the South American country's adherence to good governance and democracy. In fact, in 2024, Uruguay was ranked as the 13th most democratic country in the world. Going hand in hand with trust in institutions is the prospect of equal opportunities for Uruguayans social advancement. In this area, Uruguay is also ranked as the country in Latin America with the highest social mobility index score. A population in need of reconciliation Corruption has long been an issue souring Latin America. Many experts in the region believe it to be the biggest hindrance to their countries. At the top of this list is Peru, with the largest share of Latin American respondents who think corruption is their country's main problem, followed by Colombia and Brazil. In light of a history of drug trafficking and guerrilla warfare, the number of Colombians who believe that the corrupt elite has captured their political system ranks as the highest in the world. To overcome the consequences of this reputation, the Colombian government has made significant efforts to pass anti-corruption legislation, such as the Colombian Penal Code and the Anti-Corruption Act.

According to a survey conducted in a selection of Latin American countries in 2024, Argentina was by far the country with the highest share of satisfied health patients, with ** percent of respondents assessing healthcare quality as good or very good, whereas only ** percent of respondents in Peru claimed to receive good healthcare. Hospitals in Latin America Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo, Brazil was considered the hospital with the highest care quality in Latin America in 2022. The first three leading hospitals in hosting patients were also located in Brazil, ranking high along other healthcare facilities in Argentina, Colombia and Chile. In 2024, Brazil was the country with the highest number of hospitals in the region, with approximately ***** establishments, followed by Mexico and Colombia. Hospital equipment in Latin America As of 2023, more than ** percent of hospitals in Latin America were equipped with electrocardiogram (EKG) machines. That year, ultrasound machines could be found in ** percent of hospitals, while a fourth of these establishments in the region had computed tomography (CT) scanners. In that year, Brazil had the most ultrasound machines installed in hospitals in Latin America, with over ******, followed by Mexico and Argentina.