Latin America has a rich and diverse history of indigenous cultures, European colonization, African slavery, and global immigration that makes it complex and difficult to describe its people with a single ethnic category or identifier. The region is generally understood to consist of the entire continent of South America in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean whose inhabitants speak a Romance language. Comprised of 33 sovereign states according to the United Nations, Latin America and the Caribbean is sometimes referred to as a “region separated by a common language” (generally Spanish).
As of late December, 2023, the current population of Latin America and the Caribbean is 667,387,475 based on the latest United Nations estimates. Therefore, the Latin American/Caribbean populations are equivalent to 8.28% of the total world population and represent 7.38% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to Statista. This is equivalent to the global GDP of another key region of the world--the Middle East/Central Asia--and is significantly greater than the ASEAN-5 nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. As such, the Latin American region cannot be ignored for its potential contribution to the global economic (and cultural) scene.Examining the contemporary environment and past of Latin America and the Caribbean will provide scholars and practitioners with the most recent research in a single volume to guide their respective activities effectively using authoritative material based on empirical data and theoretical discourse.