Countries Resized by Population in South America (10,000 BC – 2100)

South America's 12 countries, plus the Falklands and French Guiana, resized by population across 338 steps between 10,000 BC and 2100: Peru leads from 1600 to 1770, and by 2100 Brazil holds more than two in five of the continent's people. French Guiana is split out of France and shown on its own, as the UN counts it. HYDE's reconstruction has the continent fall from about 30 million people in 1500 to about 6 million in 1600, the collapse that followed European contact. In the UN projection South America peaks in 2049 at about 468 million people. How it's built: each shape starts as the country's real outline on an equal-area projection of Natural Earth's borders, then a flow-based (diffusion) cartogram grows or shrinks it until its area is proportional to its population at that step, with neighbours kept touching. Population comes from Our World in Data's long-run series: HYDE 3.3 model estimates up to 1799, Gapminder for 1800–1949 and, from 1950, the UN's World Population Prospects 2024, whose medium projection supplies the years 2024 to 2100. A few countries jump in 1800 and 1950, where one source hands over to the next, and places with no figure yet shrink to slivers. All 338 steps get the same screen time: 1,000 years per step until year 0, then 100 years, 10 years from 1700 and a single year from 1800, and the caption under the clock says which. Shapes use today's borders and flags in every year, so each one stands for the land of a present-day country rather than whichever state ruled it. Borders are Natural Earth's de facto lines, except Crimea, drawn with Ukraine per UN resolution 68/262; they are a drawing convention, not a position on any dispute. 0:00 10,000 BC: 1,000-year steps 0:31 Year 0: 100-year steps 1:17 1700: 10-year steps 1:44 1800: one year per step 6:17 1900 8:34 1950: UN estimates begin 10:50 2000 11:56 2024: UN projection begins 13:07 2050 14:15 2075 to 2100 Data sources: population, Our World in Data long-run series built from HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN World Population Prospects 2024 (accessed 2026-09-28); borders, Natural Earth 1:50m Admin 0 countries. Music: "Heaven and Hell" by Jeremy Blake (YouTube Audio Library) A new data video every day. Subscribe to Cat-alytics 🐱 #Brazil #Colombia #Argentina #Peru #SouthAmerica #Population #Cartogram