Population and Demographics

The population of South America varies through each country. Some are high in population while others are low. The following information from World O Meters (2017), expresses live data of  South America, and the World Population Review (2017) ranks the highest and lowest.

The top 5 most populous countries in South America are:

Brazil: 209 million

Colombia: 49 million

Argentina: 47 million

Peru: 31 million

Venezuela: 31 million

The 5 least populous countries in South America are:

Falkland Islands (UK): 2,000+

French Guiana: 282,000+

Suriname: 563,000+

Guyana: 777,000+

Uruguay: 3 million+

South America has a total land area of 17.84 million square kilometers (6.89 square miles), which makes it fourth in terms of area (behind Asia, Africa and North America) and fifth in terms of population (after Asia, Africa, Europe and North America), (South America Population,2017). By 2060 the population of South America should be stabilized to be 218 million.

South America currently has a very high proportion of children under 15 years. Many of its countries are enjoying high annual economic growth rates as high as 8% in the case of Argentina, while unemployment remains fairly low (South America Population, 2017).