2023 Facts & Figures: SOUTH AMERICA

DATES between which almost all of South America broke free from Spanish or Portuguese colonial rule. During this period, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela declared independence and then won wars to secure it. Spain’s and Portugal’s colonization of South America had begun more than 200 years earlier. 

^{Source: latinostories.com}

AREA in square miles of Amazon rainforest that was cleared in Brazil in January 2022. This was the most ever cut down in a single month. About 17 percent of the Amazon has been destroyed in the past 50 years. Scientists say once 20-25 percent is cleared, the rainforest will reach a tipping point, and its wet, tropical climate will start to dry out, endangering the vast numbers of plants and animals that live there. 

^{Source: Council on Foreign Relations}

PERCENTAGE of Venezuela’s population that lives in extreme poverty, the highest of any country in South America. The nation is suffering from a devastating humanitarian crisis, with severe shortages of food, medicines, drinking water, and gasoline. 

^{Source: Council on Foreign Relations}

The only nation in South America without a McDonald’s is Bolivia. When the country’s first McDonald’s opened in La Paz, in 1997, people lined up to get in. But by 2002, the fast-food chain had closed all eight restaurants in the country. Bolivia is the poorest nation on the continent, and McDonald’s prices were out of reach for many. 

^{Sources: Statista, kiwi.com}

DATE that the subway system in Buenos Aires, Argentina, began operating. It’s the oldest subway system in Latin America and the 13th oldest in the world. 

^{Source: Secrets of Buenos Aires}