The biggest countries in South America

Which are the biggest countries in South America by area?

Brazil is the biggest country in South America by area, with 8,515,767 km². That is 48.0% of the land of all 12 countries in South America.

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and 3.1 times the size of Argentina. It borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia fill the next four places, all above a million km². Chile is seventh. It is about 4,300 km long but averages only 180 km wide.

Suriname, Uruguay and Guyana are the three smallest, and French Guiana, which sits between Suriname and Brazil, is not on the list because it is a region of France. Together the 12 countries cover 17.7 million km², slightly more than Russia.

Which are the biggest countries in South America by population?

Brazil has the most people in South America: 212.80 million in the UN's 2025 estimate, or 48.6% of the 437.78 million people who live in these 12 countries.

Brazil has 212.8 million people. Colombia, second, has a quarter of that. Argentina is third with 45.9 million people spread over the second largest area, so its population density is a fifth of Colombia's. Venezuela's 28.5 million reflects the more than 7 million people who left the country between 2015 and 2024, according to the UN refugee agency.

Bolivia, fifth by area, is eighth by population. Guyana and Suriname have fewer than a million people each, and Guyana has fewer than 4 people per km², among the lowest densities in the world.

Which are the biggest countries in South America by GDP?

Brazil has the biggest economy in South America. The IMF projects its GDP at $2.64 trillion for 2026, which is 50.9% of the total for South America.

Brazil's economy is 3.8 times Argentina's and bigger than the other 11 countries combined. Colombia is third, then Chile, which has fewer people than Peru but a larger economy. Peru is fifth.

Venezuela is seventh with $111.3 billion. Its GDP fell by about three quarters between 2013 and 2020, and it was the third largest economy on the continent before that collapse. Guyana at eleventh is the fastest growing economy in the world since offshore oil production began in 2019, and it now has the highest GDP per person in South America. Uruguay, with 3.4 million people, has an economy larger than Bolivia's, which has 3.7 times as many people.

How does the ranking change with the measure?

The top five under each measure, side by side:

Brazil is first on every list. Argentina is second by area and GDP but third by population. Colombia is fourth by area and second by population. Chile is seventh by area and fourth by GDP. Bolivia is fifth by area and ninth by GDP. All 12 countries, three ranks each:

How do we count?

South America is the 12 independent countries on the continent, from Colombia and Venezuela in the north to Chile and Argentina in the south. French Guiana (a region of France) and the Falkland Islands (a British territory) are not counted. Panama and everything north of it counts as North America, and Trinidad and Tobago, though it lies 11 km off the Venezuelan coast, is grouped with the Caribbean in North America.

Area is total area including lakes and rivers, from the UN Statistics Division and the CIA World Factbook. Population is the UN World Population Prospects estimate for 2025, taken from the World Bank. GDP is the IMF World Economic Outlook (April 2026) projection for 2026, in current US dollars. We use the same figures on the map, so the boxes there and the tables here agree. More on the data.