2025 Facts & Figures: SOUTH AMERICA

BRAZIL is home to 1.5 million people of Japanese heritage, the world’s largest such community outside of Japan. Beginning in the early 1900s, waves of Japanese migrants arrived on South American shores as Japanese authorities promoted emigration to alleviate poverty and overpopulation. At the time, Brazil, having recently outlawed slavery, sought laborers to cultivate its expanding plantations.

^{Source: BBC}

After decades of research and with the aid of laser technology, archaeologists have uncovered a network of ancient cities that once existed in eastern ECUADOR. The discovery contributes to the mounting evidence of flourishing urban centers in the Amazon region dating back 2,000 years.

^{Source: The New York Times}

GUYANA has the world’s fastest-growing economy. Its economic boom began nearly a decade ago, with a massive oil discovery off its shores. This South American nation is on track to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer by 2035, surpassing countries such as Norway, Qatar, and the United States.

^{Source: AP NEWS}

Based on a recent study of ancient scripts, experts believe the Rapa Nui, the Indigenous people who erected the megaliths on Easter Island in CHILE, likely invented writing independently before the arrival of Europeans in the 1720s. This suggests that writing may have emerged in four separate instances: in Mesopotamia around 3400 B.C.; Egypt around 3250 b.c.; China around 1200 B.C., and Mesoamerica before 500 B.C.

^{Source: Smithsonian}

YEAR when the territory of Upper Peru changed its name to BOLIVIA in honor of Simón Bolívar, a military leader who led Upper Peru and five other South American countries to independence.

^{Source: Britannica}