50 Interesting Fun Facts About South America

South America is a great place to be if you have not, but here are what some famous people said about the continent

What an absurdity to go and bury oneself in South America, where they are always having revolutions (Agatha Christie).

I remember one time we were getting ready to go to South America and everything was packed up and in the car ready to go and I hid and I was crying because I did not want to go, I wanted to play. I did not want to go (Michael Jackson)

I’ve been to Japan. I’ve been to China. I’ve been to Africa. I’ve been to the Middle East. I’ve been to Europe a little bit. I’ve never been to South America (Collin Quinn)

There was not a war in South America for 50 years, and I have every confidence that countries of Central and South America are deeply in earnest in the maintenance of peace (Frank B. Kellogg)

1. The most peaceful country in South America is Chile
2. South America is the fourth largest continent by landmass
3. Sao Paulo, Brazil is the largest city in South America
4. The largest lake in South America is Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela at 13,300 sq mi
5. The main languages in South America are Spanish and Portuguese
6. The world’s smallest orchid- minuscule orchid (2.1mm wide) was discovered in Ecuador, South America
7. The most populous city is Buenos Aires in Argentina
8. The economic gap between the rich and the poor in most South American nations is considered to be larger than in other continents
9. The largest remaining natural resource is the Amazon forest
10. The wettest inhabited place on earth is Buenaventura, Columbia
11. Brazil has the most internet users on the continent
12. The largest salt lake in the world is Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
13. The highest point in South America is Cerro Aconcagua in the Andes in Argentina
14. The most forested country in South America is Suriname
15. The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls at almost 1000m
16. More than 92% of the South American population are into Roman Catholicism
17. According to the UN, the average life expectancy is 72 years
18. 20% of plants found to have anti-cancer properties are found only in the great rainforest of South America
19. The driest place on Earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile
20. The highest capital city La Paz, Bolivia
21. The highest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls in Venezuela
22. The world southernmost inhabited community, Puerto Toro in Chile
23. The country with the lowest literacy rate in Brazil at 86.4%
24. The main religions are Roman Catholic and Protestantism
25. The largest country in South America is Brazil
26. The most corrupt country in South America is Venezuela according to Corruption Perception Index
27. South America is divided politically into 12 Independent Country
28. South America is connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama
29. The two countries producing the most coffee in the world are located in South America
30. Chile has the most newspaper journalists
31. Six of the seventeen mega-diverse countries are found in South America (Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela)
32. There are four operational Nuclear Power Reactors in Brazil
33. The longest river in South America is the Amazon River, also the world’s second-longest
34. South America was named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci
35. The heaviest snake on earth- the anaconda is found in South America
36. Quinine, the first drug that was used to prevent and treat malaria is obtained from the bark of the tree called Cinchona that grows in Ecuador, South America
37. The country with the highest military spend in Columbia- 3.4% of its GDP
38. The highest commercially navigable lake in the world is the Lake Titicaca 
39. The tallest building in South America is Parquet Central Complex, Caracas, Venezuela
40. Suriname is the smallest country on the continent
41. South America is the fifth most populous continent in the world
42. The most deforested country in South America is Ecuador
43. The only South American to win Olympic gold in weight lifting is Marie Isabel Urrutia
44. According to Global Peace Index, the least peaceful country in Columbia
45. More than 20% of Earth’s oxygen is produced in South America
46. South America major resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum
47. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth
48. The independence of South America was secured by Simon Bolivar (Venezuela) and Jose de \San Martin (Argentina)
49. The country to have won the highest number of FIFA World Cups in Brazil
50. South America has nearly 26% of the world’s renewable sources of freshwater
51. South America contains more than 40% of the world’s plants and animals species, in an area smaller than 15% of the earth’s land surface
52. Argentina’s Patagonia has one of the highest wind energy potentials on earth