Countries of the Americas

Gran Sabana, the Great Plain is part of the Canaima National Park in Venezuela

View of the Gran Sabana, the Great Savanna is part of the Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela.
Image: Inti

America

Conventionally there are four main geographical regions or subregions in the Americas.

North America The Caribbean Central America South America

Some Facts about the Americas

Map of North America

Strictly speaking, the American continent consists of two continents and the largest island in the world, North America, South America and Greenland. Central America and the Caribbean are usually considered part of North America.

The double continent is situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere, bounded by the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and the Southern Ocean in the south.

Measured from the northernmost point of Greenland to the southernmost point of South America, it is 15,600 km as the crow flies, making America the most elongated landmass in the world.

Area
With an area of 42.55 million km² (16,428,000 sq mi), the Americas cover 8.3 percent of Earth's surface area and 28.5 percent of its total land area.

The largest countries by area are Canada with 9,984,670 km², the United States with 9,833,517 km², followed by Brazil with 8,515,770 km² and Argentina with 2,780,400 km².
In terms of land area, the United States (9,147,593 km²) is the largest country in the Americas, followed by Canada (9,093,507 km²).

The smallest independent country in the Americas is the island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis with 261 km².

How many countries are there in the Americas?
America is shared by 35 countries (sovereign states) and several dependent territories (see the list below).

Country

Pop.
(1000)

Maps

Capital/
Largest city

North America
View of the Milky Way over Echo Lake in Colorado. Image: Max and Dee Bernt
North America or Northern America is the northern landmass of the Americas. The third largest continent on Earth covers an area of 24.7 million km² (9.5 million sq mi) and is situated in Earth's western hemisphere. The United Nations geoscheme defines "North America" as consisting of three regions: Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The term Northern America refers to the northern portion of the continent. It includes the world's largest island Greenland and the sovereign states of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. About 498 million people live in Northern America (in 2019.) Countries of Northern America
	Canada	37,411	Map of Canada	Ottawa - Toronto
	Greenland (DK)	57	Map of Greenland	Nuuk (Godthab)
	Mexico	132,328	Map of Mexico	Mexico (City)
	USA	329,065	United States Map	Washington - New York

The Caribbean
Petit Tabac, an island in St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. Image: _dChris
The Caribbean, sometimes also referred to as the West Indies, are the islands and archipelagos in the Caribbean Sea southeast of the United States and north of South America. The Caribbean region borders the Gulf of Mexico in the west, the Florida Straits in the north and the Northern Atlantic Ocean in the east. The largest islands in the Caribbean are Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. An estimated 44 million people live in the Caribbean (in 2019). Countries in the Caribbean
	Anguilla (UK)	15		The Valley
	Antigua and Barbuda	104		Saint John's
	Aruba (NL)	106		Oranjestad
	Bahamas	403	Bahamas Map	Nassau
	Barbados	287		Bridgetown
	Bermuda (UK)	61	Bermuda Map	Hamilton
	British Virgin Islands (UK)	32		Road Town
	Cayman Islands (UK)	63		George Town
	Cuba	11,492	Cuba Map	Havana
	Curaçao (NL)	163		Willemstad
	Dominica	75		Roseau
	Dominican Republic	10,997	Dominican Rep. Map	Santo Domingo
	Grenada	109		Saint George's
	Guadeloupe (FR)	449		Basse-Terre
	Haiti	11,243	Haiti Map	Port-au-Prince
	Jamaica	2,906	Jamaica Map	Kingston
	Martinique (FR)	385		Fort-de-France
	Montserrat (UK)	5		Plymouth
	Puerto Rico (USA)	3,655	Puerto Rico Map	San Juan
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	56		Basseterre
	Saint Lucia	180		Castries
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	110		Kingstown
	Trinidad and Tobago	1,375		Port-of-Spain
	US Virgin Islands (USA)	105	U.S. Virgin Is. Map	Charlotte Amalie

Central America
The great square of the temple of Tikal in Guatemala. The complex was one of the largest cities and archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization. Image: Daniel Mennerich
The term Central America refers to the land bridge between the continents of North and South America; it borders the Pacific Ocean in the southwest and the Caribbean Sea in the northeast. There are seven countries in Central America: Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. An estimated 182 million people live in Central America (in 2019). Countries of Central America
	Belize	390	Map of Belize	Belmopan
	Costa Rica	4,999	Map of Costa Rica	San José
	El Salvador	6,445	Map of El Salvador	San Salvador
	Guatemala	17,578	Map of Guatemala	Guatemala (City)
	Honduras	9,569	Map of Honduras	Tegucigalpa
	Nicaragua	6,351	Map of Nicaragua	Managua
	Panama	4,226	Map of Panama	Panama (City)

South America
The Salvador Dalí Desert is a barren valley west of the Andes in southwestern Bolivia. Image: Diego Delso
South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated in the Western Hemisphere. The fourth largest continent in the world lies mostly south of the equator. South America borders the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Caribbean Sea in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the north and east and the Southern Ocean in the south. The continent is connected to North America by a narrow strip of land known as the Isthmus of Panama. South America's mainland is shared by twelve sovereign states and one overseas department of France (French Guiana.) An estimated 432 million people live in South America (in 2019). Countries in South America
	Argentina	45,102	Map of Argentina	Buenos Aires
	Bolivia	11,380	Map of Bolivia	La Paz, Sucre
	Brazil	212,393	Map of Brazil	Brasilia - São Paulo
	Chile	18,337	Map of Chile	Santiago
	Colombia	49,850	Map of Colombia	Bogotá D.C.
	Ecuador	17,100	Map of Ecuador	Quito
	French Guiana (FR)	297	French Guiana Map	Cayenne
	Guyana	787	Map of Guyana	Georgetown
	Paraguay	6,982	Map of Paraguay	Asunción
	Peru	32,934	Map of Peru	Lima
	Suriname	573	Map of Suriname	Paramaribo
	Uruguay	3,482	Map of Uruguay	Montevideo
	Venezuela	32,780	Map of Venezuela	Caracas

Population source: population.un.org/wup/

Four antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) on the Chajnantor plain of the Atacama Desert in Chile, with the Milky Way in the background.
Image: European Southern Observatory

More about the Americas

Population
An estimated 998 million people live in the Americas; ^[1] about 13% of the world population.
The most populous countries in the Americas are the United States, with 329 million people, and Brazil, with 212 million (in 2019).
(Source: UN World Population Prospects)

Largest Metropolitan Areas
The largest cities in the Americas are:
São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles.

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas

Aconcagua in the Andes mountain range is the highest mountain in the Americas at 6,960.8 m (22,837 ft).
Image: Roberto Castillo

Highest Point
Aconcagua in Argentina is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere at 6,960.8 meters (22,837 ft).
Denali in Alaska (also known as Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain in North America at 6,168 meters (20,239 ft).

Largest Lake
The largest lake in the Americas is Lake Superior. It is the largest of the Great Lakes and is shared by Canada and the US. With a surface area of 82,000 km² (32,000 sq mi), it is also the largest freshwater lake in the world.

Longest Rivers
The longest river in the Americas is the Rio Amazonas (Amazon river), with a length of "at least" 6,400 km (4,000 mi). The source of the Amazon lies in the Peruvian part of the Andes mountain range.

The second longest river in the Americas is the Paraná, at 4,880 km (3,030 mi); it flows through three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, before entering the Rio de la Plata, an estuary in the Atlantic Ocean.

There is much discussion about the longest river in North America, as the name of the "main river" varies.

Anyway, the Missouri is the longest river in North America with a length of 4,087 km (2,540 mi); it originates in the Rocky Mountains in western Montana.

At 3,766 km (2,340 mi), the Mississippi River is the second longest river in North America, rising at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, USA. ^[2]

Major Geographical Features of the Americas
Major physiographic regions of the Americas.

Major Subregions
North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Mountains
The Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains, and the Andes all belong to the mountain system of the American Cordillera, a series of mountain ranges running through North and South America and West Antarctica.

Lightning over Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia

Lightning over Salar de Uyuni. The Salar de Uyuni is the largest and highest salt desert in the world. It is located in the southwest of Bolivia.
Image: Soumei Baba

Shields and Plateaus
North America
Allegheny Plateau, the Appalachian Highlands and the Appalachian Plateau, the Intermontane Plateaus with the Colorado Plateau and the Columbia Plateau, the Coteau des Prairies (in parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa), the Missouri Plateau, the Ozarks, and the Yukon Plateau (Yukon Territory, Canada).

South America
Major plateaus are the Altiplano (High Plateau in Bolivia) and the Atacama Plateau (mainly in Argentina), the Brazilian Highlands and the Mato Grosso Plateau (central Brazil), the Guiana Shield (one of the three cratons of the South American Plate) and the Guiana Highlands, the Pakaraima Mountains (mainly in southwestern Guyana) with Mount Roraima (at the tripoint of Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil).

Lowlands
There are several major lowlands in the Americas, such as the Atlantic coastal plain along the East Coast of the United States and the Great Plains (part of the Interior Plains of North America), located in the US and Canada. South American lowlands are the vast Amazon basin (the Amazon drainage basin covers an area of more than 35% of the South American continent). The Pampas are fertile plains shared by Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The Gran Sabana (Great Savanna) is an enormous savanna region in Venezuela, and Los Llanos (The Plains), an extensive tropical grassland plain in Colombia and Venezuela.

Deserts
The Atacama, a desert in Chile and Peru, is one of the driest places in the world. The Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) in Bolivia is the world's largest and highest salt desert. The Patagonian Desert is the largest in the Americas, whereas the Great Basin Desert is one of the largest deserts in North America. The Chihuahuan Desert extends over a large area of northern Mexico and the southern part of the USA. The Sonoran Desert, the hottest desert in Mexico and the United States, covers part of the southwestern United States and the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur.

Lakes
Superior, Huron, and Michigan are three of the Great Lakes of North America; they are among the largest freshwater lakes on Earth. With a surface area of 8,372 km². Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America.

Islands
The largest islands in the Americas are Greenland, Baffin Island, Victoria Island, Ellesmere Island, Newfoundland, Cuba, and Hispaniola.

Languages of Americas:
Thousands of languages were spoken in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. The major languages spoken today in the Americas are based on Spanish, English, Portuguese, some French and French-based creole, and a few Amerindian languages.

Keywords: countries of Americas, the population of Americas, destination Americas, travel Americas, capitals Americas, Central Americas, North Americas, Southern Americas, East Americas

More about the Americas

Maps

Map of Central America and the Caribbean
Reference Map of Central America and the Caribbean.

Political Map of North America
Reference Map of North America.

Relief Map of North America
Physical Map of North America.

Map of South America
Reference map of South America.

Map of the United States
Map of continental USA.

Maps of the U.S. States
Index of Reference Maps of the 50 U.S. States.

Searchable Maps of Countries and Capital Cities of the Americas

Flags

Flags of the Americas and the Caribbean

Flags of the 50 U.S. States

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