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As of 2017,South America has an estimated population of 418.76 million people.
| Country /Territory | Area (km2)[1] (sq mi) | Population (July 2017 est.)[2] | Population density (per km2) | Capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Argentina | 2,766,890 km2 (1,068,300 sq mi) | 44,293,293 | 16.0/km² (41.4/sq mi) | Buenos Aires |
 Bolivia | 1,098,580 km2 (424,160 sq mi) | 11,138,234 | 10.13/km² (26.3/sq mi) | La Paz andSucre[3] |
 Brazil | 8,514,877 km2 (3,287,612 sq mi) | 217,240,060 | 24.35/km² (63.1/sq mi) | Brasília |
 Chile[4] | 756,950 km2 (292,260 sq mi) | 17,789,267 | 23.5/km² (60.9/sq mi) | Santiago |
 Colombia | 1,138,910 km2 (439,740 sq mi) | 47,698,524 | 41.88/km² (105.9/sq mi) | Bogotá |
 Ecuador | 283,560 km2 (109,480 sq mi) | 16,290,913 | 57.45/km² (148.8/sq mi) | Quito |
 Falkland Islands (United Kingdom)[5] | 12,173 km2 (4,700 sq mi) | 3,198[6] | 0.26/km² (0.7/sq mi) | Stanley |
 French Guiana (France) | 91,000 km2 (35,000 sq mi) | 221,500[7] | 2.7/km² (5.4/sq mi) | Cayenne |
 Guyana | 214,999 km2 (83,012 sq mi) | 737,718 | 3.43/km² (8.9/sq mi) | Georgetown |
 Paraguay | 406,750 km2 (157,050 sq mi) | 6,943,739 | 17.07/km² (44.2/sq mi) | Asunción |
 Peru | 1,285,220 km2 (496,230 sq mi) | 31,036,656 | 24.14/km² (62.5/sq mi) | Lima |
 South Georgia andSouth Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom)[8] | 3,093 km2 (1,194 sq mi) | 30 | 0/km² (0/sq mi) | Grytviken |
 Suriname | 163,270 km2 (63,040 sq mi) | 591,919 | 3.62/km² (9.4/sq mi) | Paramaribo |
 Uruguay | 176,220 km2 (68,040 sq mi) | 3,360,148 | 19.06/km² (49.4/sq mi) | Montevideo |
 Venezuela | 912,050 km2 (352,140 sq mi) | 31,304,016 | 34.32/km² (88.9/sq mi) | Caracas |
| Total | 17,824,513 | 418,762,546 | 24.49/km2 | – |
| Rank | City name | Member state | Pop. | Rank | City name | Member state | Pop. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 São Paulo | 1 | São Paulo | Brazil | 21,090,792 | 11 | Fortaleza | Brazil | 3,985,297 |  Rio de Janeiro |
| 2 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | 13,693,657 | 12 | Salvador | Brazil | 3,953,290 | ||
| 3 | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | 13,131,431 | 13 | Recife | Brazil | 3,914,397 | ||
| 4 | Bogotá | Colombia | 10,777,931 | 14 | Medellín | Colombia | 3,777,009 | ||
| 5 | Lima | Peru | 9,904,727 | 15 | Curitiba | Brazil | 3,502,804 | ||
| 6 | Santiago | Chile | 6,683,852 | 16 | Campinas | Brazil | 3,094,181 | ||
| 7 | Belo Horizonte | Brazil | 5,829,923 | 17 | Guayaquil | Ecuador | 2,952,159 | ||
| 8 | Caracas | Venezuela | 5,322,310 | 18 | Cali | Colombia | 2,911,278 | ||
| 9 | Porto Alegre | Brazil | 4,258,926 | 19 | Quito | Ecuador | 2,653,330 | ||
| 10 | Brasília | Brazil | 4,201,737 | 20 | Maracaibo | Venezuela | 2,576,836 | ||
An estimated 90.0% of South Americans areChristians[10] (82%Catholic, 8% other Christian denominations mainly traditionalProtestants andEvangelicals but alsoOrthodoxy), accounting for ca. 19% of Christians worldwide.
Crypto-Jews orMarranos,conversos, andAnusim were an important part of colonial life in Latin America.
Both Buenos Aires, Argentina and São Paulo, Brazil figure among the largestJewish populations by urban area.
Japanese Buddhism andShinto-derivedJapanese new religions are common in Brazil and Peru.Korean Confucianism is especially found in Brazil while Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Confucianism is spread throughout the continent.
Kardecist Spiritism can be found in several countries.
Religions in South America as of 2013:[11]
| Country | Christians | Catholics | Other Christians | No religion (atheists and agnostics) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 88% | 77% | 11% | 11% |
| Bolivia | 96% | 74% | 22% | 4% |
| Brazil | 86% | 64% | 22% | 9% |
| Chile | 70% | 57% | 13% | 25% |
| Colombia | 92% | 80% | 12% | 7% |
| Ecuador | 93% | 80% | 13% | 7% |
| Guyana | 63% | 7% | 56% | 3% |
| Paraguay | 95% | 85% | 10% | 2% |
| Peru | 94% | 81% | 13% | 3% |
| Suriname | 51% | 29% | 22% | 5% |
| Uruguay | 58% | 47% | 11% | 41% |
| Venezuela | 88% | 71% | 17% | 8% |
In terms ofrace, the demographics of South America shows a mixture ofAfricans,Amerindians,Europeans,Anusim orMarranos, and to a lesser extentArabs,Romanis, andEast Asians. A mixture of Amerindian and European ancestry is often referred to asmestizo or caboclo/mameluco.Castizos are people whose DNA is mostly European with Indigenous markers assimilation. A mixture of Amerindian and African ancestry is referred to in many South American countries aszambo or cafuzo. A mixture of European and African ancestry is referred to asmulatto. A mix of European and Japanese is referred as ainoko orhafu. Chile administersEaster Island in the South Pacific, which is home to 2,500 Polynesians, the Rapa Nui people.
| Country | Amerindians | White people | Mestizos | Mulattos | Black people | Zambos | East Asians | South Asians | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 1.0% | 85.0% | 14.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Bolivia | 53.0% | 14.0% | 30.0% | 2.4% | 0.0% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Brazil | 0.6% | 43.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 10.2% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 45.3% |
| Chile | 3.0% | 52.0% | 48.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Colombia | 9.5% | 26.4% | 50.3% | 4.4% | 9.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Ecuador | 25.0% | 9.9% | 56.1% | 3.9% | 5.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Guyana | 10.5% | 1.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 29.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 39.8% | 19.9% |
| Paraguay | 3.0% | 43.0% | 55.0% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Peru | 37.0% | 20.0% | 38.0% | 2.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Suriname | 3.8% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 15.7% | 21.7% | 0.0% | 1.5% | 27.4% | 28.4% |
| Uruguay | 0.0% | 88.0% | 8.0% | 4.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Venezuela | 2.7% | 42.7% | 49.7% | 7.7% | 2.0% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
South America is home to 400 million people, of which 180 million is composed ofWhites with several different European extractions, as well as people with other lineages including 17 millionLevantine Arabs, mostly Christians from theLevant region, (found in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Chile), 440 thousandAshkenazi andSephardi Jews (mostly Argentina and Brazil, with both figuring among the top 10 largestJewish diasporas) and 1.3 millionCrypto-Jews orAnusim.
According to genetic tests, the most prevalent DNA marker found in all people of the continent (including Whites and mixed peoples) is a marker for Iberian genes (Portuguese and Spaniard).[citation needed] AfterIberian (i.e.Lusitanian,Galician,Castilian andCatalan), the main European ethnicities areItalian,German andSlavic, followed byFrench andDutch.
Brazil has 31 million Italians and Argentina 20, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador also have considerable Italian diasporas. Brazil has 15.7 million Germans, Austrians, Luxembourgers and Swiss (second largest German diaspora after US) and Argentina 3.5 million consisting mostly of Russian Volga Germans. Other German groups can be found in Chile, Bolivia (mostlyMennonites), Paraguay (mostly German-Brazilians but includingMennonites), Peru, Uruguay and colonies in Venezuela.
Brazil has the largest Slavic population with the number ofPoles[14] reaching 3 million people, followed byUkrainians andRussians but comprising many other nationalities. This is followed by Argentina, then Chile.
Brazil has the largest Dutch and Scandinavian (mostlyNorwegian) populations as well as the largestLithuanian diaspora outsideBaltic states. A small number ofBoers or WhiteAfrikaners migrated to South America during the 20th century, heading especially to Argentina and Brazil. And Lithuanian refugees fleeing the Nazi invasion and Soviet annexation in WW2 also formed communities in Colombia and Venezuela.Brazil also comprises the largestHungarian, Estonian andFinnish diasporas, being followed by Argentina in terms of nationalities ofUralic languages. Argentina has the largestFrench and Irish populations, respectively 6 million and 1 million, whileArgentine Patagonia is home toWelsh andSwedish colonies. Brazil and Chile are also home to considerableFrench ancestry populations. A great part of the French immigrants in Chile were ofBasque descent, with the number of Basques estimated at 4 million. Chile has 800 thousandBritish and Irish people. Brazil and Argentina also have sizableBritish Latin American populations, being the responsible for the introduction of football in the 19th century.
The number ofGypsies or Romani people revolves around 1.120 million, with a possibility of being much higher, being spread all over the continent. Most of the Romanis in Brazil are of Eastern European and Baltic background, while most of the Gypsies in Argentina, Chile and Colombia came from Spain.
South America is also home to 124 millionCastizo, Mestizo orCaboclo people (citizens whose DNA is mostly European spanning from 65 to 90% European genes with considerable Indigenous admixture) and 27 million people with pure Indigenous extraction, mostly found in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, South of Colombia and parts of Chile and Northwest Argentina. Mestizos make the majority in Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
Black phenotype and Mulatto population are respectively 18 and 48 million, when combined 66 million. Mulattos have a range of 60 to 80% European genes and are mostly found in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana where French ancestry Mulattos are the majority. To a much smaller percentage degree they can be found in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay.The Guianas region where today are the independent states of Guyana and Suriname as well as France overseas department of French Guiana is home to theMaroons (formerly called "Bush Negroes") who are of African descent, with some Amerindian admixture. The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River.
MostEast Indian Hindus and Muslims live in Guyana and Suriname which is also home to a large MuslimJavanese community. East Indians are the vast majority in Guyana, followed by Blacks and also the majority in Suriname where they are followed by Maroons and Creoles.
Indonesians from the island of Java make 13.7% of Suriname's population which figures as 275 thousandJavanese people.Dutch Surinamese orBoeroes make the minority of the country due to the fact that most of the Dutch emigrated to the Netherlands after Suriname's independence.
South America is home to over 5 millionAsians, mostlyEast Asians, with Brazil and Peru having the largestAsian Latin American populations. Peru and Venezuela have greatly numerous 19th century Chinesecoolie populations with almost 1.9 million Chinese people combined. Peru itself is home to over 1.4 millionChinese Peruvians, mostly arriving asindentured servants. The Asian-Brazilian population is mostly composed of Japanese descendants and Japanese nationals, but it also comprises over 250 thousand Chinese and 50 thousandTaiwanese recent immigrants. Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador also follow in numbers of Chinese immigrants.
Brazil is home to the largestJapanese and Korean populations in the continent with respectively 1.8 million and 140 thousand people. The Nipponic or Nipponese population in Brazil is the largestJapanese diaspora outside Japan. Koreans can also be found in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Chile. Peru is home to 160 thousand Japanese descendants, and Nipponese populations are also found in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile and Venezuela. Argentina is home to the largestFilipino population with 15 thousand people.
Other Asian nationalities can be found in smaller numbers, such as South Asians or East Indians, Southeast Asians and Central Asians. Brazil has 5 thousand Vietnamese people, 10 thousand East Indians, as well as 5 thousand Afghans, and a small number of Iranians. Argentina also have small numbers of Southern Asians or East Indians, while being home to most Southeast Asians, mostly Filipino.
Brazil is home to the largestWhite Latin American population in absolute numbers constituting 98 million people. Uruguay has the largest percentage with 90.7% being Caucasian or over 3 million people. Argentina equally corresponds to the second largest population and percentage with 39 million people, followed by Colombia with 18m, Venezuela 13.1m, Chile 9.5m, Peru 5.8m, Bolivia 2m, Paraguay 1.3m and Ecuador with 980 thousand.
Roughly 14% of the population in French Guiana is of European ancestry, numbering at 35 thousand people. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch, British, Spanish and Portuguese ancestry. Countries that make part of South America but do not have Romance languages as their official national languages areGuyana,Suriname and theFalkland Islands.
Suriname has 2% of Europeans and Levantines or 12 thousand people, including Lebanese and Jews. Most Boeroes or Dutch Surinamese left after independence in 1975. There are less than 3 thousand Whites in Guyana where 0.5% of the population is counted as "others". TheFalkland Islands have a low population density.
According to the 2012 census, the average daily population of the Falklands was 2,932, excluding military personnel serving in the archipelago and their dependents. The Falklands are a homogeneous society, with the majority of inhabitants descended from Scottish and Welsh immigrants who settled the territory in 1833. Other groups are English, French, Gibraltarian, Scandinavian, Saint Helenian and Argentine.
| Quechua | Guarani | Aymara |
| Nahuatl | Mayan languages | Mapuche |
Indigenous people make up about half of the population ofBolivia. In many places indigenous people still practice a traditional lifestyle based onsubsistence agriculture or as hunter-gatherers. There are still some uncontacted tribes residing in theAmazon rainforest.
Argentina's indigenous population in 2010 was about 900,329 (2.38% of total population); this figure includes 457,363 people who self-identified as belonging to an indigenous ethnic group, and the remaining 142,966 who recognized themselves as first-generation descendants of an Amerindian people.[15] The ten most populous indigenous peoples are theMapuche (113,680 people), theKolla (70,505), theToba (69,452) and theGuaraní (68,454).
InBolivia, a 62% majority of residents over the age of 15 self-identify as belonging to an indigenous people, while another 3.7% grew up with an indigenous mother tongue yet do not self-identify as indigenous.[16] Including both of these categories, and children under 15, some 66.4% of Bolivia's population was registered as indigenous in the 2001 Census.[17] The largest indigenous ethnic groups are:Quechua (about 2,500,000 people),Aymara (2,000,000),Chiquitano (181.000),Guaraní (126.000) andMojeño (69,000).
The Amerindians make up 0.4% ofBrazil's population, or about 700,000 people.[18][19] Indigenous peoples are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although the majority of them live inindigenous territories in the North and Centre-Western part of the country. On 18 January 2007,FUNAI reported that it had confirmed the presence of 67 differentuncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005. With this addition Brazil has now overtaken the island ofNew Guinea as the country having the largest number of uncontacted tribes.[20]
According to the 2002 Census, 4.6% of the Chilean population (including theRapanui ofEaster Island) 692,000 persons was self-identified of indigenous origins.[21] Many are descendants of theMapuche, and live inSantiago,Araucanía and the lake district. Other groups include theAimara who live mainly inArica-Parinacota andTarapacá Region and has the mayority of their alikes living in Bolivia and Peru and theAlacalufe survivors who now reside mainly inPuerto Edén.
Colombia's indigenous peoples nonetheless encompass at least 85 distinct cultures and more than 1,378,884 people.[22][23] A variety ofcollective rights for indigenous peoples are recognized in the 1991 Constitution. One of these is theMuisca culture, a subset of the largerChibchaethnic group, famous for their use ofgold, which led to the legend ofEl Dorado.
At the present the 25% of Ecuador's population is of indigenous heritage. Approximately 96.4% of Ecuador's Indigenous population are Highland Quichuas living in the valleys of the Sierra region. Primarily consisting of the descendants of Incans, they areKichwa speakers and include the Caranqui, theOtavaleños, the Cayambi, the Quitu-Caras, thePanzaleo, the Chimbuelo, the Salasacan, the Tugua, the Puruhá, theCañari, and the Saraguro.
Indigenous population in Peru make up around 25%. Native Peruvian traditions and customs have shaped the way Peruvians live and see themselves today. Cultural citizenship—or what Renato Rosaldo has called, "the right to be different and to belong, in a democratic, participatory sense" (1996:243)—is not yet very well developed in Peru. This is perhaps no more apparent than in the country's Amazonian regions where indigenous societies continue to struggle against state-sponsored economic abuses, cultural discrimination, and pervasive violence.[24]
Indigenous population in Venezuela form about 2% of the total population,[25] although many Venezuelans share some indigenous ancestry. Indigenous people are concentrated in the Southern Amazon rainforest state of Amazonas, where they make up nearly 50% of the population and in the Andes of the western state of Zulia. The most numerous indigenous people, at about 200,000, is the Venezuelan part of the Wayuu (or Guajiro) people who primarily live in Zulia between Lake Maracaibo and the Colombian border. Another 100,000 or so indigenous people live in the sparsely populated southeastern states of Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro.
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