The total population of South America, covering a large area of about 177 million square kilometers, was only 125 million in 1955, or about 7 persons per square kilometer. This population was distributed very unevenly over various regions. In order to investigate the distribution of population, the author attempts to show a distribution map of population density of the various geographical regions. (Fig. 1 & 2) In this attempt South America is divided into 21 geographical regions, following O. Schmieder's divisions in “Länderkunde Südamerikas”, but amended by the author as follows.
Geographical Regions Population Density (after landscape) per sq. km. (1) Northern Andes 23.0 (2) Llanos of the Orinoco 2.4 (3) Middle Andes 8.1 (4) Coast of Peru 17.0 (5) Northern arid Chile 1.4 (6) Mediterranean Climate region of middle Chile 29.2 (7) Southern Chile 12.7 (8) Western Patagonia 0.7 (9) Semi-arid plateau of eastern Patagonia 0.5 (10) North-western Argentina 3.3 (11) Pampas 19.3-13.6 (12) Grand Chaco 2.4-0.2 (13) Llanos of the Mamoré 0.5 (14) Lowland east of the Paraná 8.5-7.9 (15) Southern Brazil 20.6 (16) Eastern Brazil 15.0 (17) North-eastern Brazil 12.9 (18) Brazilian Plateau 0.9 (19) Amazonian Basin under 0.5 (20) Guiana Highland 0.06-0.4 (21) Coast of Guiana 4.0
There are five cities in South America with populations of over one million. On this continent the development of cities with a million in total population is greater than in other continents. And the concentration of population in capital cities is very remarkable, especially in Uruguay, Argentine and Chile. (Table 2) These three countries are situated in the temperate climate zone and their capitals having very excellent geographical locations are the centers of economic activities in their own countries. In Brazil the degree of population concentration in the capital city is the lowest on this continent, because she has another city with a million inhabitants and has vast undeveloped areas in the Amazon basin in the north. And the concentration of population in capital cities in South American countries is growing year after year. This tendency is most remarkable in Peru and Venezuela. Lima was “the capital of Kings” in the colonial period and the growth of white inhabitants is very striking in recent years. Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, had in 1956 about one million inhabitants inclucing the suburbs. The development of Caracas is due to the recent rapid growth in the production of petroleum in this country. In Andean countries the capitals are situated in the high mountain basins, avoiding the tropical coast with its high temperature. There are 52 cities in South America with populations of over 200, 000. Half of these cities are port cities and those on the Atlantic coast are more numerous than those on the Pacific coast. Most cities in the inland are found in the Andean mountains. Some cities containing 200, 000-500, 000 inhabitants are situated in the Pampa region and along the margin of the Brazilian Plateau. But in recent years new small cities and towns are growing up in the inner parts of the plateau with very low population densities and as these small cities are not always on rivers and as have not railways and good roads, they are connected by local air lines.

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