South America
Eight of the countries filed here take their founding date from the fifteen years between 1810 and 1825. Ecuador and Venezuela settled theirs in the decades after Gran Colombia came apart. Guyana followed in 1966 and Suriname in 1975. Two of them are not states at all: one is a department of France, the other a British overseas territory.
14 countries
Common questions
Questions about South America
How many countries are in South America?
Twelve sovereign states, plus two territories governed from Europe, which makes 14 countries on this page. French Guiana is a department of France and the Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory administered from Stanley. The M49 scheme published by the UN Statistics Division adds Bouvet Island and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands to its own South America, and neither of those has a settled population or a place on this roster.
Is French Guiana a country?
No. The law of 19 March 1946 classed it as a French department, and it is administered as a region of France, votes in French and European elections, and uses the euro. Its land borders with Brazil and Suriname are therefore borders of the European Union, which is why the frontier between the Union and Brazil runs through Amazon forest.
Why does Bolivia have no coastline?
The coast was lost in the War of the Pacific and the boundary that followed was fixed by the treaty of 20 October 1904 with Chile. Bolivia asked the International Court of Justice to find an obligation on Chile to negotiate sovereign access to the sea, and the Court held on 1 October 2018 that no such obligation exists. Bolivia is the only member here whose record marks it landlocked.
What languages are official in South America?
Spanish in eight of the records, Portuguese in Brazil, Dutch in Suriname, English in Guyana, French in French Guiana and British English in the Falkland Islands. Uruguay's record names none. Alongside Spanish, several records carry indigenous languages: Quechua and Aymara in Bolivia and Peru, Guarani in Bolivia and Paraguay, Northern Quichua and Shuar in Ecuador.