The most widely spoken language in the world by number of countries. Features of the Spanish language in Latin America

October 20 at the Ivan Turgenev Library-Reading Room with a lecture on the topic “Genealogical classification of languages North America: Problems and Prospects” was presented by a linguist, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the Sector of Comparative Studies of the Institute oriental cultures and Antiquity RSUH; senior researcher Laboratory of Oriental Studies and Comparative Historical Linguistics of the School of Contemporary Humanitarian Studies of the Institute social sciences RANEPA Mikhail Zhivlov. His speech was the second lecture in the new series of lectures "Polit.ru" on modern historical linguistics.

The diversity of North American languages ​​is very large. Among them, there are several dozen independent family languages ​​and isolate languages. If we list only large generally recognized language families, then there will be at least eleven of them. First, this Eskimo-Aleut languages, some of which are also found in Eurasia. Moving further south, we meet the language family on the day. It is distributed in Alaska, in the northwestern part of Canada, some of its branches penetrated the Pacific coast of the United States, and some even reached the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico, where the Navajo language, which is part of this family, is widespread. Algonquian family distributed in the eastern and central parts of Canada, and the Great Lakes region and in the northern part of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Two languages ​​​​of this family (Wiyot and Yurok), having come a long way, ended up in California (we previously talked about the Yurok language in). The original homeland of the Algonquian family, apparently, was in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat is now Oregon, and then their carriers migrated east.

language family Sioux distributed over the space from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Saskatchewan River in the north to the Arkansas River in the south, its ancestral home, apparently, was located on east coast USA. The languages ​​of the family are also found in the Great Plains. caddo(Chinese, Arikara, Pawnee and Caddo proper). Family language speakers muskogee(Today, Alabama, Koasati, Creek, Mikasuki, Chickasaw, and Choctaw languages ​​have survived) live in the southeastern United States, in the states of Missouri and Alabama. Homeland vast Uto-Aztec family, apparently, was the southwest of the United States, from where their carriers entered the area Great Basin, and some (Comanche) - and further, to the Great Plains. Another branch of the same family spread south, reaching Mexico and Honduras. Their most famous representative is classical Nahuatl, which served as the main language of the Aztec state before the Spanish invasion.

Family languages ​​spoken in Mexico and Guatemala Mayan They now number about forty. The languages ​​of the family are also spoken in southern Mexico. mihe-soke. It is assumed that the Olmecs, the creators of the first developed civilization in Mexico, were the speakers of these languages ​​in antiquity. Possibly related to the Mihe-Soke languages Totonac language family. Finally, also in the south of Mexico there is also Oto-Mang family languages, earlier its representatives were also distributed to the south, in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This family is remarkable in that the predicted date of its collapse is the oldest of the generally recognized language families in North America. So the Oto-Mang family is not inferior in age, for example, to the Indo-European.

Recall that the above are only the largest and generally recognized families, but in fact independent families or individual languages, for which kinship with no one has been established, in North America there are even more. The Pacific coast of the United States is particularly diverse in this respect. According to the Glottologist website, there are 42 separate language families and 31 isolate languages ​​in North America (not counting languages ​​brought by Europeans). That is, the genetic diversity of languages ​​in North America is greater than in Eurasia (26 families and 12 isolates according to the same site), Australia (23 families and 9 isolates) or Africa (34 families and 17 isolates). This situation is quite remarkable, given that America was settled later than other continents.

the first scientific classification languages ​​of North America was offered by the Bureau of American Ethnology in late XIX century under the leadership of John Wesley Powell (1834 - 1902). It was based on a comparison of vocabulary lists collected by the researchers, without applying the rigorous methods of comparative historical linguistics, but only on the basis of intuitively estimated similarity. As a result, Powell and his collaborators divided the 632 languages ​​surveyed into 42 independent families plus 31 isolated languages.

In the future, scientists have repeatedly tried to reduce such a number of families to a smaller number of larger language associations. In particular, Alfred Kroeber (1876 - 1960) and Roland Dixon (1875 - 1930) worked with the Indian languages ​​of the western United States, who proposed a number of hypotheses of linguistic kinship. Among the ideas of Kroeber and Dixon, the hypotheses about the existence of the Hoka and Penuti language families won the greatest recognition. Dixon and Kroeber also suggested for the first time that the Californian Wiyot and Yurok languages ​​mentioned above are related to the Algonquian languages.

A more rigorous justification for the relationship of the Wiyot and Yurok with the Algonquians was later given by the outstanding American linguist Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939). Sapir also owns a number of other achievements in the genealogy of American languages. For example, he included in the Hoka family a number of languages ​​spoken outside of California. Comparing the Nahuatl and Southern Paiute languages, it proved the relationship of the Uto-Astecan languages.

Leonard Bloomfield (1887 - 1949), who was engaged in Indo-European studies at the beginning of his career, then applied its methods to the languages ​​​​of the Algonquian family, strictly substantiating the relationship of several of them (Fox, Cree, Menominee and Ojibwe). Bloomfield's work refuted the previously widespread opinion that the methods of classical comparative studies developed on the material Indo-European languages, are not applicable to the "languages ​​of savages".

John Peabody Harrington (1884 - 1961) made a great contribution to the study of the languages ​​of North America, who spent more than forty years doing field research, collecting materials on Indian languages. If not for him, many further works of the comparativeists would have been impossible, since many languages ​​\u200b\u200bdisappeared completely and to establish from family ties it just wouldn't be required material. Numerous dictionaries and grammars have already been published on the basis of Harrington's data, and their full publication will take decades to come.

In 1929, Edward Sapir published an article in the Encyclopedia Britannica entitled "Languages ​​of Central and North America", where he tried to reduce the number of language families on the continent from a few dozen to just six: Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian-Wakash, Na-Dene, Penuti, Hoka Sioux, Aztec-Tanoan. It should be remembered that Sapir directly pointed to the preliminary nature of his classification and well shared proven hypotheses (for example, kinship within the Uto-Aztec languages), fairly reliable (Hoka family, Wiyot and Yurok kinships with Algonquian) and conjectural hypotheses (Hoka-Sioux macrofamily). However, the authority of Sapir was so great that many subsequent authors began to perceive his classification as textbook and fully confirmed.

On the other hand, later, American linguists began to refute the existence of separate related groups proposed by Sapir. As a result, the next stage in the history of the classifications of the languages ​​of North America took place mainly under the motto of "splitterism" - the splitting of hypothetical groups and families of languages. The splitters' criticism was quite justified, since many of the hypotheses about linguistic kinship that were proposed were based on insufficient material or were unproven. The most influential representative of this trend is Lyell Campbell. As a result, the book The Languages ​​of Native America: An Historical and Comparative Assessment, published in 1979, edited by Campbell and Marianne Mitun, postulated the existence of 62 independent genetic associations of North American languages. In Campbell's 1997 book American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America, there are still slightly fewer of them - only 58.

If Campbell is a representative of the extreme skeptical wing regarding the hypotheses about the linguistic relationship of the North American languages, then Joseph Greenberg (1915 - 2001, he could have been mentioned in a lecture on the languages ​​of Africa) took a diametrically opposite position. In the 1987 book Language in the Americas, he divided all the languages ​​of not only North but also South America into just three big families: Ekimo-Aleut, Na-Dene and all the others, to which he gave the name Amerindian languages.

Although it is now clear that united family After all, there were no Amerindian languages, there are a number of hypotheses of kinship within the languages ​​of North America, which show sufficient resistance to all the efforts of splitters to refute them. According to Mikhail Zhivlov, the existence of Hoka and Penuti language families is very likely, although the specific composition of the languages ​​included in each of them is not yet completely clear. Hypotheses linking the isolated Yuchi language (Oklahoma) with the Sioux languages, the isolated Natchez language (Louisiana and Mississippi) with the Muskogee languages, and some others also have good potential.

There are several interesting new hypotheses. In the recently published book “Human Settlement of the New World: A Comprehensive Study Experience” (2015), Ilya Peiros proposed the unification of a number of families (Hoka, Penuti, Yuto-Astec, Mihe-Soke, Maya and Quechua) into a “West Amerindian” macrofamily. Together with S. L. Nikolaev, Peiros also suggests the existence of "Beringian languages", which include the Salish, Algonquian, Wakash, and Chukchi-Kamchatka languages. But these hypotheses still need to be proven.

What are the reasons for such a high diversity of North American language families? According to Mikhail Zhivlov, there may be several. First, in America there was no wide expansion of any one language family, like Indo-European in Eurasia or Bantu in Africa, which would wipe out a number of other languages. Secondly, according to genetics, before spreading across the North and South America, people have lived on the territory of Beringia for several millennia. During this time, linguistic diversity within this territory undoubtedly increased, even if we assume that initially they all spoke closely related languages. Then they all poured into the American continent, as a result of which the current language map was formed. Finally, it is not at all necessary that the settlement of America took place at the same time, by a homogeneous linguistic group of people. It is quite likely that there were several waves of immigrants, and hence the linguistic diversity of America goes back to the diversity of the languages ​​of Eastern Siberia of the Paleolithic era.

We have already printed, according to the number of people who speak them. But not only is it interesting, it is also interesting to know the number of countries and territories where they are spoken.

Here is a list of the ten most widely spoken languages ​​in the world by the number of countries in which they are spoken.

1. English - 59 countries

Previously, the British Empire included a huge number of colonies, and English language became the most widespread in the world. Along with the UK and the United States, the following countries speak English: Antigua, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Zambia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta , Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

2. French - 29 countries

The French also colonized a number of countries at one time African continent. French is widely spoken in countries such as Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Republic, Democratic Republic Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Switzerland, Togo and Vanuatu, naturally in France itself.

3. Arabic - 25 countries

Arab world covers most West Asia and North Africa.On Arabic spoken in Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Zambia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia , United United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

4. Spanish - 24 countries

There was a time when Spain ruled half the world, all of Central and South America, with the exception of Brazil. Spanish is still spoken in the following countries: Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Gibraltar, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.

5. Russian - 12 countries

Through existence Soviet Union Apart from Russia itself, Russian is understood and sometimes spoken as a native language in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Russian is the most widely spoken of Slavic languages and is considered the largest vernacular in Europe.

6. Portuguese - 11 countries

Portugal was once a great power, along with Spain. Even before 1999, Macau, which lies deep in the heart of Asia, was a Portuguese colony. Until now, Portuguese is often spoken in the following countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Goa, Daman and Diu, and even in India .

7. German - 7 countries

Germany is located in the center of Europe. Its central location, along with its economic strength and former military glory, were able to spread their language in countries such as Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland. In the South Tyrol region in Italy, German is also spoken. There is also a community in Belgium that still speaks this language.

8. Italian - 6 countries

Italians beautiful language, and is spoken even outside of native Italy. The Vatican, being a state based in Rome, obviously speaks the language, as well as other countries that can speak and understand Italian San Marino and Switzerland. States Former Yugoslavia Croatia and Slovenia have areas that also speak Italian.

9. Chinese - 4 countries

In terms of the number of people who speak this language, Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. With a population of over a billion people, this is obvious. It is also known as Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese. Its other names are Mandarin, Guoyu, Modern Standard Mandarin, and Putonghua. It is widely spoken in the People's Republic of China and in Taiwan. It is also one of the four official languages ​​of Singapore. Chinese is also understood and spoken in Myanmar.

10. Dutch - 3 countries

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by the majority of the population in the Netherlands. It is also used by about 60 percent of the population of neighboring Belgium and the former Dutch colony of Suriname in South America. Dutch is also spoken in the Caribbean, and is widely used in countries such as Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, as well as parts of Indonesia.

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With all due respect to a number of state and official languages ​​of Latin America, one should not forget that almost every state in this region also has local dialects. They were formed during the active assimilation of immigrant communities into the local culture. In addition, in response to the question what is the language in latin america preserved for many centuries, one must point to numerous Indian languages ​​and dialects, especially since many of them represent huge interest for linguists and ethnographers.

Let's take a look at one of the languages ​​of Latin America. This is a unique language of the Zapotec Indians living in the territory of modern Mexico. The uniqueness of the language lies not only in the fact that it has as many as three dialects for 450 thousand people using it, but also in the fact that the ancient Zapotec writing has not yet been deciphered. At the same time, even representatives of the nationality itself cannot give an unambiguous answer to what exactly these or those symbols mean. ancient language. Today, the Zapotecs have switched to the Latin alphabet.

What is the language in Latin America most and least common among Europeans? Over 233 million Latin Americans speak Spanish. It is state in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile and other countries of the continent. French is the least widely spoken. It is spoken by no more than 250,000 people in Guiana, also in the island states of the Caribbean. Distribution of European languages ​​of Latin America shows which states and on what scale colonized the continent for three centuries. The second most used among European languages ​​of Latin America is Portuguese. However, it is a state only in Brazil. However, the Brazilian population is very big number, which is why more than 190 million people speak Portuguese in Latin America.

English is also considered the official language the language of Latin America such as Guyana and the Falkland Islands. By the way, the Falklands remain the site of a rather serious political conflict between Argentina and Great Britain. Here in the early eighties there were even active fighting between the troops of the British Crown and the Argentine regular army, during which the Argentines suffered a serious defeat.

Another European language in Latin America is Dutch. It is spoken by about half a million people, most of whom live in the state of Suriname.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were active immigration flows from Europe to Latin America. This left its mark on the development of the language of Latin America. So in Argentina alone, over the past hundred years, a special language has appeared, which is a mixture of Spanish and Italian. This is due to the fact that several million ethnic Italians live in Argentina today, many of whom have assimilated with the local Hispanic population.

The Russian language is not alien to Latin America either, because there are a large number of descendants of immigrants from Russia who fled from the horrors of the revolution and civil war.

See also:

The richest culture of Latin America

When it comes to the culture of Latin America, the first thing that comes to mind to a resident of other continents is the various Indian rites, the Brazilian carnival, the Argentinean rodeo and, of course, football, which can be called a real Latin American religion.

Indigenous peoples of South America

Considering the indigenous population of South America, it is worth noting that the Latin American continent is the region of the planet where the Indians are allowed not only to live and develop freely, but also to occupy responsible leadership positions of national importance.

Languages ​​of the Americas quite varied. Conventionally, they can be divided into two large groups: the languages ​​of the Indian tribes that inhabited the Americas before the European conquest and the languages ​​that spread in the Americas in the post-colonial period (mostly European languages).

The most popular languages ​​in America today are languages European states which once had extensive colonies in America are English (the country of Great Britain), Spanish (Spain) and Portuguese (Portugal). It is these three languages ​​that in most cases are the official state languages ​​of the countries of North and South America.

The largest and most widely spoken language in America is Spanish. In total, more than 220 million people speak it in the Americas. Spanish is the dominant language in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama. He is also official language in these countries.

In second place in terms of distribution in America is English (more precisely, its American dialect). It is spoken by 195.5 million people in the Americas. Most English is spoken, of course, in the United States. It is also spoken in Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, Bermuda and other island nations. English is considered official language Belize, although the majority of the country's population still speaks Spanish and Indian languages.

Rounding out the top three, Portuguese is spoken by 127.6 million people in the Americas. Most Portuguese is spoken in Brazil. In this country, it is the official language.

French is also popular in America, it is spoken in both Americas by 16.8 million people, German (8.7 million people), Italian (8 million people), Polish (4.3 million people). .) languages.

As for the Indian languages, they are spoken today in both Americas by about 35 million people. Most Indian languages ​​are spoken in Peru (7 million people), Ecuador (3.6 million people), Mexico (3.6 million people), Bolivia (3.5 million people), Paraguay (3.1 million people)

The Indian languages ​​of America are quite diverse and scientists are divided into groups according to geographical principle. most big group Indian languages ​​is the "Ando-Equatorial" group of families of Indian languages ​​- the languages ​​​​of this group are spoken by the tribes of Quechua, Aymara, Araucans, Arawaks, Tupi-Guarani, etc. - more than 19 million people in total. The languages ​​of the Penuti family group are spoken by the Indians of the Mayan tribes, Kaqchikels, Mame, Kekchi, Quiche, Totonaki, etc. - a total of 2.6 million people. The languages ​​of the "Azteco-Tanoan" group of families are spoken by the tribes of the Aztecs, Pipili, Mayo, and others - about 1.4 million people in total. In total, in both Americas there are 10 Indian language groups of families.

Latins

A collective term for countries that speak Romance languages ​​(Portuguese and Spanish) derived from Latin, hence the name. Latin America is often associated with Catholicism, with a strong Roman legal and cultural tradition. Latin America is often referred to in the West as Latin Europe, just as there is German Europe or Slavic Europe. The countries of South America began to be called Latin America in the 19th century, when a very strong influence Roman Catholicism, in this region, the contribution of European Romance countries was most visible in terms of culture, language, religion, as well as at the genetic level. The majority of Hispanics are of Latin European ancestry, specifically from Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal. North America, in contrast, is called Anglo-Saxon America, however, the Americans themselves and the inhabitants of Latin America call Americans nothing more than simply Americans, Canada is simply Canada, and residents are Canadians.

Population of Latin America

Today, the population of Latin America is estimated at more than 610 million people.

ethnic groups

Latin America is the most diverse region in the world in terms of the presence of ethnic groups and races, the ethnic composition varies from country to country, the majority of the population of Latin America are mestizos, descendants of marriages between Europeans and local Indians. In most countries, the Indian population predominates, in some countries it is white, there are countries where the majority of the population is black or mulatto. Nevertheless, about 80% of the population of Latin America have European roots.

Latin American countries

In addition to the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries of mainland America, the list of Latin American countries also includes the countries of the Caribbean region: Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba. Often, the countries in Latin America are also included in the countries in which they speak French, the former and current colonies of France are French Guiana, Saint-Martin, Haiti, with the exception of Quebec, which is located on Canadian territory.

Many countries in Latin America belong to North America, so do not confuse the concepts of South America and Latin. North America includes Mexico, most countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Countries in which the majority of the population speaks English traditionally do not include Latin America - these are Guyana, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica and others.

Latin America is picturesque and quaint, despite its unfavorable white man climatic conditions is popular tourist place, here is the world's highest Angel Falls, the largest mountain lake Titicaca and the largest functioning volcano Cotopaxi, the longest Andes mountain system on Earth, greatest river Amazon. There are many natural resources here, many countries live off the sale of oil and gas.

Languages ​​in Latin America

Most Latin American countries are Spanish speaking, Portuguese is spoken largest country in the region - Brazil. In Suriname they speak Dutch, French in Guyana, English in Guyana, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica.

60% of the population of Latin America consider Spanish their first language, 34% Portuguese, 6% of the population speak other languages ​​such as Quechua, Maya, Guarani, Aymara, Nahuatl, English, French, Dutch and Italian. Portuguese is only spoken in Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese), the largest and most populous country in the region. Spanish is the official language of most of the rest of Latin America, as well as Cuba, Puerto Rico (where it is on par with English), and the Dominican Republic. French is spoken in Haiti and in the French overseas departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guiana, the French overseas community of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and French is also spoken in Panama. Dutch is the official language in Suriname, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Dutch is related to Germanic, so these territories are not necessarily considered part of Latin America.

Indian languages: Quechua, Guarani, Aymara, Nahuatl, Maya lenguas, Mapudungun are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay and Mexico, to a lesser extent in Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages ​​tends to be small or non-existent, such as in Uruguay. Mexico is the only country that boasts a wider variety of indigenous languages ​​than any other Latin American country, the most widely spoken Indian language in Mexico is Nahuatl.

In Peru, the Quechua language is the official language, along with Spanish and any other language of other indigenous peoples of the country where they predominate. There is no official language in Ecuador and Quechua is a recognized indigenous language under the country's Constitution, but Quechua is spoken by only a few groups in the highlands. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guarani have official status along with Spanish. Guarani, along with Spanish, is the official language of Paraguay, where the majority of the population is bilingual, in the Argentine province of Corrientes, only Spanish is official. In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast the official languages ​​are English and indigenous languages ​​such as Miskito, Sumo and Rama.

Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages ​​spoken locals, however, only 1% of the country's population are native speakers of these languages. Nahuatl is one of 62 indigenous native languages ​​in Mexico that are officially recognized by the government as "national languages" along with Spanish.

Other European languages ​​that are common in Latin America are English, spoken by some groups in Puerto Rico, as well as in neighboring countries that are not considered Latin America, these are Belize and Guyana.

German is spoken in southern Brazil, southern Chile, parts of Argentina, Venezuela and Paraguay.

Italian is spoken in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay.

Ukrainian and Polish in southern Brazil, southern Argentina.

Yiddish and Hebrew are common in the vicinity of Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.

Japanese is spoken in Brazil and Peru, Korean in Brazil, Arabic in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, and Chinese throughout South America.

In the Caribbean region, Creole is spoken, including Haitian Creole, which is the predominant language of Haiti, this is primarily due to the mixing of French with West African languages, Amerindian, with influences from English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The Garifuna language is spoken along Caribbean coast in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize.

Latin American countries

The largest country in Latin America by area is Brazil with an area of ​​8515767 square kilometers, followed by Argentina 2780400, Mexico 1972550, Peru 1285216, Colombia 1141748, the smallest region is the French overseas territory of Saint-Martin with an area of ​​25 square kilometers.

If you look at the population, then again largest state is Brazil 201032714 people, then Mexico 118395054, Colombia 47387109 and only in fourth place Argentina 41660417.

Cities in Latin America

The largest city in Latin America is the Mexican capital of Mexico City 20631353 people, then Sao Paulo Brazil 19953698, Buenos Aires Argentina 13333912, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11968886, Lima Peru 10231678, Bogotá Colombia 8868395, Santiago Chile 7023767, Belo Horizonte Brazil 5504729, Caracas Venezuela 5297026, Guadalajara Mexico 4593444.

Latin America's richest city Buenos Aires with a GDP per capita of $26,129 followed by Caracas 24,000, Sao Paulo 23,704, Santiago 21,393, Mexico City 19,940, Lima 17,340, Belo Horizonte 17,239, Guadalajara 16,855, Rio de Janeiro 16282, Bogotá 15891.

Religion in Latin America

90% of Hispanics are Christians, 70% of the Hispanic population identify themselves as Latin Rite Catholics. As we have noticed, Latin America is dominated by Catholicism, in contrast to Protestant North America with the USA and Canada.

Hispanics and migration

For example, about 10 million Mexicans live in the USA today, 29 million Americans today can boast of Mexican roots. 3.33 million Colombians today live outside their homeland, 2 million natives of this country live outside of Brazil. One and a half million Salvadorans live in the United States and as many more de Dominicans, 1.3 million Cubans.

0.8 million Chileans live in Argentina, United States, Canada, Sweden and Australia.

Education, schools and literacy in Latin America

In Latin America today there is big problem with access to education, however last years the situation has improved, most of the children are already going to school. Children who live in remote areas do not have access to education, as well as children of black families who may live in extreme poverty. Only 75% of the poorest youth aged 13 to 17 attend school. Currently, more than half of children in low-income or rural areas cannot complete nine years of secondary school.

Crime and violence in Latin America

Latin America is synonymous with the word crime. Latin America and the Caribbean is the most dangerous region in terms of crime modern world, it is in Latin America that the most dangerous cities in the world are located, which can be justified by the highest level of social inequality in the incomes of the population. The crime problem will not be solved until the social gap between the rich and the poor is bridged. Therefore, the prevention of crime, the increase in the number of police and prisons will lead to nothing. The murder rate in Latin America is the highest in the world. From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, the homicide rate increased by 50 percent. The main victims of such killings are young people, 69% of whom are between the ages of 15 and 19.

The most dangerous countries in Latin America

Samimi dangerous countries in Latin America are: Honduras 91.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, El Salvador 69.2, Venezuela 45.1, Belize 41.4, Guatemala 38.5, Puerto Rico 26.2, Dominican Republic 25, Mexico 23.7 and Ecuador 18.2 .

For example, the global average is 6.9. In 1995, Colombia and El Salvador broke the world record in terms of crime - 139.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Crime and violence in Latin America is a major threat to human health and more lives than AIDS or other infectious diseases.

Economy of Latin America

nominal GDP of US$5,573,397 million. Human Development Index (HDI) in Latin America

All Latin American countries are countries with developing economies. If we evaluate the countries of the region according to the Human Development Index (HDI), then the leader here is Chile with a coefficient of 0.819, then Argentina 0.811, Uruguay 0.792, Panama 0.780, Mexico 0.775, Costa Rica 0.773, Peru 0.741, Colombia 0.719, Dominican Republic 0.702, Bolivia 0.675, Paraguay 0.669, Guatemala 0.628, Honduras 0.617, Nicaragua 0.599, Haiti is the underdog at 0.456.

Poverty in Latin America

The richest and poorest countries in Latin America

If we evaluate countries by poverty level, then people in Uruguay feel best of all, where only 3% of the population is below the poverty line, followed by Chile with a coefficient of 3.2, Argentina 3.7, Costa Rica 3.7, Cuba 4.6, Mexico 5.9, Venezuela 6.6, Panama 6.7, Colombia 7.6, Ecuador 7.9, Brazil 8.6, Haiti 31.5 worst. For example, 54.9% of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day in Haiti, 16.9% in Guatemala, 15.8% in Nicaragua, 23.3% in Honduras, and 15.1% in El Salvador.

Malnutrition affects up to 47% of Haitians, 27% of Nicaraguans, 23% of Bolivians and 22% of Honduras.

Life expectancy in Latin America

The level of life expectancy is one of the most important indicators of the quality of life. So from this point of view, it is best to live in Cuba, in Costa Rica and Chile, where the figure is 79 years. Mexico and Uruguay have 77, Panama, Ecuador and Argentina have 76, while Haiti is the lowest at 62.

The best countries in Latin or South America to live in

So, Chile and Uruguay share the palm, Chile has the highest human development index, GDP, life expectancy and the lowest crime rate for this region. Uruguay boasts the most low rate income inequality, here the most low level poverty, extreme poverty, and the country has the highest peacefulness score.

Panama is different the highest level real GDP growth. Cuba boasts success in education, the lowest illiteracy rate of the local population, and people in Cuba have a very long life, Costa Rica also boasts a relatively high life expectancy for its citizens.

Haiti has the worst performance, it's scary to live in this country. However, surprisingly, Haiti has a very low crime rate, despite the extreme poverty of the population, the murder rate of only 6.9 per 100,000 people per year is about the same crime rate in prosperous Uruguay. But it is already very dangerous in Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico.

The best country to live in Latin America

The popular countries of Argentina and Brazil show average figures for the entire Latin American region. So the most best country for life, from our point of view, these are Chile and Uruguay, followed by Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. Accident data in Cuba may be skewed.

Ecology in Latin America

The highest ecology in Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador. The lowest in Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Chile and Argentina.

Tourism in Latin America

Among the countries of Latin America, Mexico is doing well in terms of international lockdown, this is due to the close geographical location to the USA and a large number archaeological sites, it is worth mentioning such a resort as Cancun.

Mexico is visited by 22.3 million foreign tourists annually, the next pursuer is very far behind, this is Argentina with a figure of 5.2 million, followed by Brazil 5.1, Puerto Rico with 3.6, Chile with 2.7, Colombia 2.38 , Dominican Republic 4.1, Panama 2.06.

Most visited cities and attractions in Latin America

Most visited cities and attractions in Latin America: Cancun, Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Cartagena, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro, El Salvador, Margarita Island, Sao Paulo, Salar de Uyuni, Punta del Este, Santo Domingo, Labadee, San Juan, Havana, Panama City, Iguazu Falls, Puerto Vallarta, Poas national park volcanoes, Punta Cana, Viña del Mar, Mexico City, Quito, Bogota, Santa Marta, San Andres, Buenos Aires, Lima, Maceio, Florianopolis, Cusco, Ponce and Patagonia.

If we talk about the effectiveness of tourism in Latin America, then the leader here is the Dominican Republic, where the largest receipts from the tourism sector from the country's GDP, but per capita tourism receipts are the highest in Uruguay. Very high receipts from tourism in Venezuela, but this is also due to the cosmic local prices. A trip to Brazil, Panama, the Dominican Republic is considered very expensive.

The most unattractive countries for tourism in Latin America are: Haiti, Paraguay, Venezuela, El Salvador - you can skip such countries on your trip to South America.