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.

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.

Cuba is the largest island country or territory in the Caribbean, with a total area of almost 111 thousand square kilometers, followed by the Dominican Republic, with nearly 49 thousand square kilometers.

As of January 2024, the Dominican Republic had the largest number of internet users in the Caribbean, with more than ***** million citizens online. Even though the Bahamas ranked seventh with ***** thousand users, it was the Caribbean sovereign state with the highest percentage of people online. Meanwhile, Montserrat was the territory with the smallest online population in the region, since only *** thousand of its inhabitants accessed the internet.

The Dominican Republic was the Caribbean territory with the largest Facebook audience as of July 2025. At that moment, there were over *** million monthly active users (MAU) accessing this social network in the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Haiti ranked second with more than ***** million Facebook users. The Dominican Republic also had the largest number of Instagram users in the region.

The boundaries of the CLME Project encompass the Caribbean Sea LME and the North Brazil Shelf LME and include 26 countries and 19 dependent territories of France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. These countries range from among the largest (e.g. Brazil, USA) to among the smallest (e.g. Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis), and from the most developed to the least developed. Consequently, there is an extremely wide range in their capacities for living marine resource management. Throughout the region, the majority of the population inhabits the coastal zone, and there is a very high dependence on marine resources for livelihoods from fishing and tourism, particularly among the small island developing states (SIDS), of which there are 16. In addition 18 of the 19 dependent territories are SIDS. The region is characterized by a diversity of national and regional governance and institution arrangements, stemming primarily from the governance structures established by the countries that colonized the region. Physical and geographical characteristics The Caribbean Sea is a semi-enclosed ocean basin bounded by the Lesser Antilles to the east and southeast, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) to the north, and by Central America to the west and southwest. It is located within the tropics and covers 1,943,000 km2. The Wider Caribbean, which includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the adjacent parts of the Atlantic Ocean encompasses an area of 2,515,900 km2 and is the second largest sea in the world. (Bjorn 1997, Sheppard 2000, IUCN 2003). It is noted for its many islands, including the Leeward and Windward Islands situated on its eastern boundary, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. There is little seasonal variation in surface water temperatures. Temperatures range from 25.5 °C in the winter to 28 °C in the summer. The adjacent region of the North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem is characterized by its tropical climate. It extends in the Atlantic Ocean from the boundary with the Caribbean Sea to the Paraiba River estuary in Brazil. The LME owes its unity to the North Brazil Current, which flows parallel to Brazil’s coast and is an extension of the South Equatorial Current coming from the East. The LME is characterized by a wide shelf, and features macrotides and upwellings along the shelf edge. It has moderately diverse food webs and high production due in part to the high levels of nutrients coming from the Amazon and Tocantins rivers, as well as from the smaller rivers of the Amapa and western Para coastal plains. The Caribbean Sea averages depths of 2,200 m, with the deepest part, known as the Cayman trench, plunging to 7,100 m. The drainage basin of the Wider Caribbean covers 7.5 million km2 and encompasses eight major river systems, from the Mississippi to the Orinoco (Hinrichsen 1998). The region is highly susceptible to natural disasters. Most of the islands and the Central American countries lie within the hurricane belt and are vulnerable to frequent damage from strong winds and storm surges. Recent major natural disasters include hurricanes Gilbert (1988) and Hugo (1989), the eruptions of the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat (1997) and the Piparo Mud Volcano in Trinidad (1997), as well as drought conditions in Cuba and Jamaica during 1997-98, attributed to the El Niño phenomenon. More recently Hurricane Georges devastated large areas, as did Hurricanes Mitch and Ivan (2004). In the case of Ivan, damages were extensive to both natural and infrastructural assets, with estimates reported by Grenada of US$815 million, the Cayman Islands US$1.85 billion, Jamaica US$360 million and Cuba US$1.2 billion. Although the intense category 5 hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not make landfall in the Caribbean, in 2005, Hurricane Wilma devastated the Yucatan peninsula and has the distinction of being the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic. Ecological status The marine and coastal systems of the region support a complex interaction of distinct ecosystems, with an enormous biodiversity, and are among the most productive in the world. As mentioned above, several of the world's largest and most productive estuaries (Amazon and Orinoco) are found in the region. The coast of Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world extending some 250 kilometers and covering approximately 22,800 km2. The region's coastal zone is significant, encompassing entire countries for many of the island nations. Fish and Fisheries A wide range of fisheries activities (industrial, artisanal and recreational) coexist in the CLME Project area. Overall landings from the main fisheries rose from around 177,000 tonnes in 1975 to a peak of 1,000,000 tonnes in 1995 before declining to around 800,000 tonnes in 2005. The total landings from all fisheries shows the decline over the last decade. In the reef fish fisheries, declines in overall landings are rarely observed; instead, there are shifts in species composition. For instance a decline in the percentage of snapper and grouper in the catch, the larger, long-lived predators, is an indication of over exploitation; although not in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem, this pattern was evident in Bermuda between 1969 and 1975 where the percentage of snappers and groupers declined from 67% to 38% and also on the north coast of Jamaica between 1981 and 1990 where the 11 decline was from 26% to 12%. According to an FAO assessment, some 35% of the region's stocks are overexploited. The fisheries of the Caribbean Region are based upon a diverse array of resources. The fisheries of greatest importance are for offshore pelagics, reef fishes, lobster, conch, shrimps, continental shelf demersal fishes, deep slope and bank fishes and coastal pelagics. There is a variety of less important fisheries such as for marine mammals, sea turtles, sea urchins, and seaweeds. The management and governance of these fisheries varies greatly and is fragmented with incomplete or absent frameworks at the sub-regional and regional levels and weak vertical and horizontal linkages. The fishery types vary widely in exploitation; vessel and gear used, and approach to their development and management. However, most coastal resources are considered to be overexploited and there is increasing evidence that pelagic predator biomass has been severely depleted (FAO 1998, Mahon 2002, Myers and Worm 2003). Recreational fishing, an important but undocumented contributor to tourism economies, is an important link between shared resource management and tourism, as the preferred species are mainly predatory migratory pelagics (e.g. billfishes, wahoo, and dolphinfish). This aspect of shared resource management has received minimal attention in most Caribbean countries (Mahon and McConney 2004). Pollution and Ecosystem Health Pollution, mainly from land-based sources, and degradation of nearshore habitats are among the major threats to the region’s living marine resources. The CLME is showing signs of environmental stress, particularly in the shallow waters of coral reef systems and in semi-enclosed bays. Coastal water quality has been declining throughout the region, due to a number of factors including rapid population growth in coastal areas, poor land-use practices and increasing discharges of untreated municipal and industrial waste and agricultural pesticides and fertilizers. Throughout the region, pollution by a range of substances and sources including sewage, nutrients, sediments, petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals is of increasing concern. The GIWA studies identified a number of pollution hotspots in the region, mainly around the coastal cities. Pollution has significant transboundary implications, as a result of the high potential for transport across EEZs in wind and ocean currents. Not only could this cause degradation of living marine resources in places far from the source, but it could also pose a threat to human and animal health by the introduction of pathogens. Pollution has been implicated in the increasing episodes of fish kills in the region, although this is not conclusive. Socio-economic situation The physical expanse of the region's coastal zone is significant, encompassing the entire land mass for many of the islands. Additionally, for countries such as the island nations of the Caribbean, Panama and Costa Rica, marine territory represents more than 50% of the total area under national sovereignty. In general, the region’s coastal zone is where the majority of it human population live and where most economic activities also take place. In 2001, the population of the Caribbean Sea region (not including the United States) was around 102 million, of which it is estimated that 59% is in Colombia and Venezuela, 27% is in Cuba and Hispaniola, 10% is in Central America and Mexico, and 3% is in the Small Islands. Taking into account the population growth rate for each country in the Caribbean Sea region, it is expected that the number of inhabitants would be close to 123 million in 2020. When the population for Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the regions of Brazil and Florida that comprise the CLME Project are included, this number is expected to increase to approximately 130 million. Almost all the countries in the region are among the world’s premier tourism destinations, providing an important source of income for their economies. The population in the Caribbean Sea region swells during the tourist season by the influx of millions of tourists, mostly in beach destinations. In 2004, for example, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo received 10.8 million tourists with over 35% of those arriving by cruise ships. There is a high dependence on living marine resources for food, employment and income from fishing and tourism, particularly among the SIDS. Although its contribution to GDP is relatively low, marine

As of July 2025, the Dominican Republic was the Caribbean territory with the largest Instagram audience, counting over *** million monthly active users (MAU). In second place was Puerto Rico, with approximately **** million users. When looking at Latin America as a whole, Brazil was the country with the highest number of users of the photo and video sharing social media platform.

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 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.

As of July 2025, the Dominican Republic was the Caribbean territory with the largest LinkedIn audience, counting nearly *** million users. In second place was Puerto Rico, with **** million users on the social network for professionals. Meanwhile, in Mexico, most LinkedIn users were between 25 and 34 years old.

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.

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.

Some of the most populous countries in Latin America were also the nations that register the highest number of murders. Brazil was the country with the largest number of intentional homicides in the region with 44,367 victims. Mexico came in second, with 33,287 homicide victims, followed by Colombia with over 13,000 victims.

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.

As of the second month of 2025, more than * out of 10 people living in the Bahamas, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina were online, putting the countries in the top position regarding internet access in Latin America. Meanwhile, more than ** percent of the populations of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Brazil were online. On the other hand, less than **** of the population of Haiti had access to the internet. Overall, the internet penetration rate in Latin America stood at **** percent. Growth in mobile connectivity… With investments in 4G infrastructure forecast to reach around ***** billion U.S. dollars by 2030, the improvement of mobile connectivity is radically changing the picture of access to the internet in Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the best examples is Peru, where the gap between urban and rural areas has greatly diminished in 2021, making its online audiences the fifth largest on the continent in 2025. …at an unequal rate Despite the improvements, Latin America and the Caribbean still face an enormous gap in internet access: the internet penetration rate in the subregion of South America was **** percent in 2025, while only **** percent of people in the Caribbean had access to the web. Despite its investments in mobile connectivity, most of the web traffic in Venezuela still originated from desktop devices in 2023, and only ***** Ecuadorians had access to mobile internet in 2025.

In 2019, Brazil and Mexico were the undisputable passenger traffic hubs in Latin America and the Caribbean, registering each over ** million air travelers passing through their airports. At a wide margin, Colombia ranked third that year, while the only Caribbean country in the top seven was the Dominican Republic. That same year, the Mexico City International Airport was the best internationally connected airport in Latin America.

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.

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.

Haiti is expected to experience the worst economic recession in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024. Haiti's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 is forecast to be 3 percent lower than the value registered in 2023, based on constant prices. Aside from Argentina, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, most economies in the region were likely to experience economic growth in 2024, most notably, Guyana.

In 2024, Haiti had a 302 percent level of occupancy in their prison system, being the country with the highest occupancy rate in the Latin America and the Caribbean. It was followed by Guatemala, with almost 300 percent occupancy rate. Among the top ten countries with the most overcrowded national prison system, Panama had the lowest rate, at 163.1 percent. Regarding prison population, El Salvador and Cuba were the Latin American and Caribbean countries that had the largest rates, both with over 500 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.