North America

North America includes Canada, the United States of America (USA), Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean islands. Greenland is sometimes considered part of North America. In...

North American nations: flags and statistics

North America A-Z

Canada

Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. Much of its vast territory is little more than wilderness, stretching from the Arctic islands of the north across...

United States of America

The fourth largest country in the world by area, the United States of America (USA), often simply known as "America" or "the States", stretches from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans...

Mexico

Two mountain ranges, the Sierra Madre Oriental in the east and the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west, run down either side of Mexico. Most people live on the wide central plateau...

Bermuda

The island nation of Bermuda is made up of 181 coral islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. They are made of a thick layer of limestone that caps a submerged ancient volcanic...

Central America

The southern part of mainland North America is made up of the seven countries of Central America: Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Panama...

Belize

The small, tropical country of Belize lies on the Caribbean coast. Much of the country is covered by tropical rainforest. In the north are swampy lowlands; in the centre are...

Costa Rica

Costa Rica is one of the most stable and well-developed countries in Central America. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the tropical lowlands of the Caribbean coast. In...

El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest—and most densely populated—country in Central America. It lies on the Pacific coast, in a volcanic region known as the Pacific Ring of Fire: it is...

Guatemala

Home to nearly 18 million people, Guatemala is Central America’s most populous country. Apart from lowlands along the coasts and in the north, nearly all of its land is...

Honduras

Honduras has a short Pacific Ocean coastline in the south, while in the north it borders the Caribbean Sea. Apart from marshy lowlands along the coasts, most of Honduras is made up...

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country by area in Central America. In the east, an area of hot, swampy rainforest fringes the Caribbean coast, known as the Mosquito Coast. Inland, the...

Panama

Panama occupies an S-shaped neck of land, called an isthmus, that links North America to South America. At its narrowest point, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) wide, the Panama...

Caribbean islands

There are 700 islands, islets and cays (coral islands) in the Caribbean Sea. Amongst them are 16 independent nations, and several island groupings that are territories of Britain...

Antigua and Barbuda

This island nation is made up of two main islands, Antigua and Barbuda, separated by about 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the Caribbean Sea. It also includes several tiny uninhabited...

Bahamas

The Bahamas are made up of about 700 islands, along with more than 2000 rocks and small, low-lying islands called cays. They form a chain stretching for nearly 970 kilometres (600...

Barbados

Barbados is the easternmost island in the Lesser Antilles group. It is made up of more than 700 islands, islets and cays (the local name for a coral reefs). Although Barbados is at...

Cuba

Along with the Cayman Islands, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, Cuba is part of the Greater Antilles. About one third of Cuba is covered by high mountains and hills; they rise...

Dominica

Dominica is an island in the Lesser Antilles, part of a group known as the Windward Islands. A volcanic island, it is covered by rugged mountains and rainforests. In the 17th...

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola (which it shares with Haiti), in the Greater Antilles. Much of the country is mountainous. In the...

Grenada

The tiny island nation of Grenada lies at the southern tip of the group known as the Windward Islands. It is made up of one main island, Grenada, a smaller island to the north...

Guadeloupe

One of the Leeward Islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea, Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France. Guadeloupe is made up of two main islands, together forming a butterfly...

Haiti

Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. It also includes the islands of Gonâve and Tortue...

Jamaica

The island nation of Jamaica is the third largest in the Greater Antilles. The Blue Mountains of Jamaica's rugged interior rise steeply in the east. Their slopes are covered by...

Martinique

Like Guadeloupe, Martinique is an overseas department of France. French settlers first claimed the island in the early 17th century. It is the largest of a group called the...

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico, the smallest of the Greater Antilles islands, has been a territory of the United States since 1898. For more than 300 years previously, it was a major trading post in...

St Kitts and Nevis

St Kitts and Nevis is an island nation, part of the Leeward Island group in the West Indies. Nevis lies about 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) to the southeast of St Kitts, which is where...

St Lucia

The island of St Lucia is part of the Windward Islands, a chain that stretches north-south along the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea. Its landscape is chiefly made up of forested...

St Vincent and the Grenadines

St Vincent and the Grenadines is situated in the southern Windward Islands. It is made up of the main island of St Vincent and a chain of smaller islands to the south called the...

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is an island country in the West Indies. It lies just off the coast of Venezuela in a chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles. Tobago, the smaller island...

US Virgin Islands

The US Virgin Islands are made up of the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas, along with several other tiny islands. Once owned by Denmark, they have been a...

British Caribbean territories

The Caribbean islands were first settled by indigenous Amerindian peoples, the Taino (also called Arawak) and the Carib. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean and...

Dutch Caribbean territories

The Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius once formed the Netherlands Antilles, despite their separate locations. Since 2010...

French Caribbean territories

The Caribbean islands were first settled by indigenous Amerindian peoples, the Taino (also called Arawak) and the Caribs. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean...