Latin America

Latin America[lower-alpha 3] is a cultural concept denoting the Americas where Romance languages—languages derived from Vulgar Latin —are predominantly spoken.[5] The term was coined in the nineteenth century to refer to regions in the Americas that were ruled by the Spanish, Portuguese and French empires. The term does not have a precise definition, but it is "commonly used to describe South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean."[6] In a narrow sense, it refers to Hispanic America, Brazil, French West Indies and Antillean Creole French speaking Caribbean countries.[7]

Latin America

Area	20,111,457 km2 (7,765,077 sq mi)[1]
Population	656,098,097 (2021 est.)[2][3][lower-alpha 1]
Population density	31/km2 (80/sq mi)
Ethnic groups	46% Mixed Indigenous and European heritage (Mestizo) 27% White 11% Indigenous 6% Black 6% Mulatto 3% Other 1% Asian
Religions	76.2% Christianity 18% No religion 5.8% Other[4]
Demonym	Latin American
Countries	20[lower-alpha 2]
Dependencies	14
Languages	Romance languages Others: Quechua, Mayan languages, Antillean Creole, Guaraní, Aymara, Nahuatl, Haitian Creole, German, English, Dutch, Mapudungun, Yiddish, Welsh, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, other languages
Time zones	UTC−02:00 to UTC−08:00
Largest cities	Largest urban areas: 1. São Paulo 2. Mexico City 3. Buenos Aires 4. Rio de Janeiro 5. Bogotá 6. Lima 7. Santiago 8. Guadalajara 9. Monterrey 10. Belo Horizonte
UN M49 code	419 – Latin America and the Caribbean 019 – Americas 001 – World

The term "Latin America" is broader than categories such as Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries; and Ibero-America, a term not generally used that specifically refers to Spanish, French and French Creole-speaking countries and Portuguese-speaking countries sometimes leaving French and British excolonies aside.

The term Latin America was first used in an 1856 conference called "Initiative of America: Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics" (Iniciativa de la América. Idea de un Congreso Federal de las Repúblicas),[8] by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao. The term was further popularized by French emperor Napoleon III's government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to justify France's military involvement in the Second Mexican Empire and to include French-speaking territories in the Americas such as French Canada, French Louisiana, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and the French Antillean Creole Caribbean islands Saint Lucia and Dominica, in the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed.[9]

The region covers an area that stretches from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and includes much of the Caribbean. It has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km² (7,412,000 sq mi),[1] almost 13% of the Earth's land surface area. As of March 2, 2020, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean was estimated at more than 652 million,[10] and in 2019, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of US$5,188,250 trillion[11] and a GDP PPP of US$10,284,588 trillion.[11][12]