South American Countries Quiz

Name all the countries of South America.

Name all twelve South American countries — the most completable continent quiz there is, and the two people always miss.

Twelve, and you can finish it today

South America has twelve sovereign states, the smallest count of any populated continent. Most people get eight or nine on a first attempt and can reach all twelve within a single session.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.

The two that go missing

Guyana and Suriname, almost every time.

They are the two non-Spanish-speaking mainland states — Guyana was British and speaks English, Suriname was Dutch and speaks Dutch — and they sit outside most people's mental picture of a Spanish-and-Portuguese continent. They are also small and on the northern coast, which is the part of the map people scan past.

Learning just those two takes a typical score from ten to twelve.

French Guiana sits next to them and is an overseas department of France rather than an independent country, which is why continent counts sometimes say thirteen. It is genuinely part of France, uses the euro, and is where the European Space Agency launches from.

The rest, briefly

Brazil dominates — it covers roughly half the continent's area and population and borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. That border fact alone answers a lot of questions.

Chile is the long thin one, over four thousand kilometres north to south and rarely more than about two hundred wide.

Bolivia and Paraguay are the two landlocked states. Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the nineteenth century and still maintains a navy on Lake Titicaca and its rivers.

Language

Spanish is official in nine of the twelve. Portuguese in Brazil, English in Guyana, Dutch in Suriname. That three-way split is worth knowing because it explains the colonial history of the whole continent in one line.

Where to go next

South American Capitals is the harder companion — Sucre, Quito, Montevideo, Asunción, Georgetown and Paramaribo are considerably less familiar than the countries they belong to. South American Flags is the easier one.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries are in South America?

Twelve sovereign states. French Guiana appears on maps of the continent but is an overseas department of France rather than an independent country, which is why some counts say thirteen.

Which South American countries are not Spanish-speaking?

Brazil speaks Portuguese, Guyana English and Suriname Dutch. Guyana and Suriname are the two countries most often missed when naming the continent, precisely because they sit outside the Spanish-and-Portuguese picture people hold.

Which South American countries are landlocked?

Bolivia and Paraguay. Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific in the 1880s and has never accepted the loss — it still maintains a navy, operating on Lake Titicaca and the country's rivers.

Which countries does Brazil border?

Every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. It covers roughly half the continent by both area and population, which makes that single fact unusually useful for border questions.

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