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.
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The average for 2021 based on 12 countries was 25 people per square km. The highest value was in Ecuador: 72 people per square km and the lowest value was in Guyana: 4 people per square km. The indicator is available from 1961 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
As of 2025, Barbados was the most densely populated country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with approximately 657.16 people per square kilometer. In that same year, Argentina's population density was estimated at approximately 16.75 people per square kilometer.
As of 2023, Brazil's population was almost the populations of all other South American countries combined. The only Portuguese-speaking country in the region had around *** million inhabitants, more than **** times the second place, Colombia, who had around ** million inhabitants in the same year.
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The average for 2023 based on 20 countries was 76.64 percent. The highest value was in Uruguay: 95.77 percent and the lowest value was in Guatemala: 53.1 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
As of 2021, Ecuador had a population density of ** people per squared kilometer, the highest in South America. Colombia ranked second, with ** people per km2 of land area. When it comes to total population in South America, Brazil had the largest number, with over *** million inhabitants.
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.
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The average for 2023 based on 12 countries was 50.47 percent. The highest value was in Uruguay: 51.51 percent and the lowest value was in Paraguay: 49.85 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
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South America has a complex demographic history shaped by multiple migration and admixture events in pre- and post-colonial times. Settled over 14,000 years ago by Native Americans, South America has experienced migrations of European and African individuals, similar to other regions in the Americas. However, the timing and magnitude of these events resulted in markedly different patterns of admixture throughout Latin America. We use genome-wide SNP data for 437 admixed individuals from 5 countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina) to explore the population structure and demographic history of South American Latinos. We combined these data with population reference panels from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to perform global ancestry analysis and infer the subcontinental origin of the European and Native American ancestry components of the admixed individuals. By applying ancestry-specific PCA analyses we find that most of the European ancestry in South American Latinos is from the Iberian Peninsula; however, many individuals trace their ancestry back to Italy, especially within Argentina. We find a strong gradient in the Native American ancestry component of South American Latinos associated with country of origin and the geography of local indigenous populations. For example, Native American genomic segments in Peruvians show greater affinities with Andean indigenous peoples like Quechua and Aymara, whereas Native American haplotypes from Colombians tend to cluster with Amazonian and coastal tribes from northern South America. Using ancestry tract length analysis we modeled post-colonial South American migration history as the youngest in Latin America during European colonization (9–14 generations ago), with an additional strong pulse of European migration occurring between 3 and 9 generations ago. These genetic footprints can impact our understanding of population-level differences in biomedical traits and, thus, inform future medical genetic studies in the region.
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This dataset provides values for POPULATION reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.
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.
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LAC is the most water-rich region in the world by most metrics; however, water resource distribution throughout the region does not correspond demand. To understand water risk throughout the region, this dataset provides population and land area estimates for factors related to water risk, allowing users to explore vulnerability throughout the region to multiple dimensions of water risk. This dataset contains estimates of populations living in areas of water stress and risk in 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at the municipal level. The dataset contains categories of 18 factors related to water risk and 39 indices of water risk and population estimates within each with aggregations possible at the basin, state, country, and regional level. The population data used to generate this dataset were obtained from the WorldPop project 2020 UN-adjusted population projections, while estimates of water stress and risk come from WRI’s Aqueduct 3.0 Water Risk Framework. Municipal administrative boundaries are from the Database of Global Administrative Areas (GADM). For more information on the methodology users are invited to read IADB Technical Note IDB-TN-2411: “Scarcity in the Land of Plenty”, and WRIs “Aqueduct 3.0: Updated Decision-relevant Global Water Risk Indicators”.
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.
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The average for 2023 based on 20 countries was 50.67 percent. The highest value was in Puerto Rico: 52.88 percent and the lowest value was in Honduras: 49.65 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
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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 2024, citizens originally from Colombia were the most common South American nationality in Spain, with about ******* residents. The Venezuela population in June of that year was over *******, making this group the second-largest nationality in Spain.
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The average for 2013 based on 11 countries was 0 percent. The highest value was in Argentina: 0 percent and the lowest value was in Argentina: 0 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2013. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.
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†Significant deviation of observed from expected heterozygosity across all loci.The population code, the number of individual samples from that population, the average number of alleles per locus and allelic richness (As) are given. The number of private alleles, if any, as well as the frequency of those private alleles in that population is also provided. Values of observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) across all loci, significant deviations from the He (†) based on a P value (Bonferroni corrected), and Wright's fixation index (F) are also given for each population.Population collections from each country and basic statistics.
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.
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.