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South America South America was named in 1507 by cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World unknown to Europeans. South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi), or almost 3.5% of the Earth's surface. As of 2005, its population was estimated at more than 371,090,000. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). South America occupies the major southern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America (which is sometimes considered a single continent[1] and South America a subcontinent).[2] It is south and east of the Colombia-Panama border according to most authorities or, according to a few, the Panama Canal which transects the Isthmus of Panama. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate. Geopolitically and geographically[3] all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is typically included in North America alone[4][5][6] and among the countries of Central America.[7][8]
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