The Americas: 35 Countries from Canada to Argentina

From Canada's Arctic coast to Argentina's Patagonian tip, the Americas span the largest north-to-south extent of any inhabited region on Earth. Thirty-five sovereign countries — three in North America, seven in Central America, twelve in South America, and thirteen in the Caribbean — and a great many of them have capitals that aren't where you'd guess.

A pattern: capital ≠ biggest city

The Americas have a strong tradition of capitals that are not their countries' largest city. The United States chose Washington, D.C. over Philadelphia or New York. Canada picked Ottawa between Toronto and Montreal. Brazil purpose-built Brasília in the 1960s. Mexico's capital is Mexico City — which is the largest city — but the pattern of "deliberately picked, not the largest" runs through almost every country in the Americas. Buenos Aires is one of only a handful of Latin American capitals that is also the country's largest city.

North America (3)

• Canada — Ottawa
• Mexico — Mexico City (also the largest city)
• United States — Washington, D.C.

Three sovereign countries fill the entire continent of North America. Greenland is the world's largest island and is geographically part of North America, but it's a constituent territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, not a sovereign country. Canada's capital Ottawa was chosen in 1857 by Queen Victoria as a compromise between Toronto and Montreal — and partly because it was further from the US border in case of invasion. Washington, D.C. sits in the federal District of Columbia between Maryland and Virginia and is not part of any state.

Central America (7)

• Belize — Belmopan
• Costa Rica — San José
• El Salvador — San Salvador
• Guatemala — Guatemala City
• Honduras — Tegucigalpa
• Nicaragua — Managua
• Panama — Panama City

The seven countries of Central America fill the narrow land bridge between Mexico and Colombia. Belize is the only one with English as its official language — it was a British colony (British Honduras) until 1981. Belize's capital Belmopan replaced Belize City in 1970 after Hurricane Hattie devastated the coast in 1961; Belize City remains the largest city. Honduras's Tegucigalpa is one of the harder Central American capitals to memorise — pronounced "te-goo-see-GAHL-pa", the name comes from the Nahuatl for "silver hill."

South America (12)

• Argentina — Buenos Aires (also the largest city)
• Bolivia — Sucre (constitutional) / La Paz (de facto seat of government)
• Brazil — Brasília
• Chile — Santiago
• Colombia — Bogotá
• Ecuador — Quito
• Guyana — Georgetown
• Paraguay — Asunción
• Peru — Lima
• Suriname — Paramaribo
• Uruguay — Montevideo
• Venezuela — Caracas

Twelve sovereign South American countries. Brazil is by far the largest, covering nearly half the continent and bordering every other South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Suriname is the smallest, and the only one whose official language is Dutch — a colonial legacy. Guyana is the only South American country with English as the official language. Bolivia's capital question is the trickiest of the continent: Sucre is the constitutional capital, La Paz is where the president and parliament work; most maps list La Paz, but technically both are correct depending on definition.

The Caribbean (13)

• Antigua and Barbuda — Saint John's
• Bahamas — Nassau
• Barbados — Bridgetown
• Cuba — Havana
• Dominica — Roseau
• Dominican Republic — Santo Domingo
• Grenada — Saint George's
• Haiti — Port-au-Prince
• Jamaica — Kingston
• Saint Kitts and Nevis — Basseterre
• Saint Lucia — Castries
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — Kingstown
• Trinidad and Tobago — Port of Spain

Thirteen sovereign Caribbean states, all relatively small. Cuba is the largest by area and population. Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest — the smallest country in the Western Hemisphere by both measures. Many other Caribbean islands you might recognise from a map are not independent: Puerto Rico (US), Bermuda (UK), the Cayman Islands (UK), Aruba and Curaçao (Netherlands), Martinique and Guadeloupe (France), and US Virgin Islands (US). They're territories or constituent countries within larger states, not sovereign nations, and so don't appear in the count of 35.

Common Americas confusions

• Dominica vs Dominican Republic — different countries on different islands. Dominica → Roseau; Dominican Republic → Santo Domingo.
• Guyana vs French Guiana vs Guinea — Guyana is a sovereign country in South America (capital Georgetown). French Guiana is an overseas department of France, not a country. Guinea is in West Africa, on a different continent entirely.
• Honduras vs British Honduras — Honduras is a sovereign country (capital Tegucigalpa). "British Honduras" was the colonial name for what is now Belize; the name stopped being used in 1973.
• Costa Rica vs Puerto Rico — Costa Rica is a sovereign country in Central America (capital San José). Puerto Rico is a US commonwealth territory (capital San Juan), not an independent country.
• Saint Kitts vs the other "Saints" — there are four "Saint" countries in the Caribbean: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Caribbean island of Saint Martin (which is shared between France and the Netherlands and is not a sovereign country).

Americas extremes

• Largest country by area: Canada (~9.98 million km²) — second-largest in the world.
• Smallest by area: Saint Kitts and Nevis (~261 km²).
• Most populous: United States (~340 million).
• Most populous in Latin America: Brazil (~215 million).
• Highest capital by altitude: La Paz, Bolivia (~3,650 m) — the highest seat of government in the world.
• Capital closest to the equator: Quito, Ecuador (0°13′S — 25 km south).
• Newest country: No country in the Americas has gained independence since the wave of post-colonial independence in the 1960s–80s — the Caribbean micro-states were the last batch.
• Only English-speaking countries in South America: Guyana (English), Suriname (Dutch), and French Guiana (a French territory, not a country).