The share of people from South American countries living in the U.S. varies a lot by country. For the biggest South American groups, Colombia is about 24% of all South American immigrants in the U.S. , Brazil about 15% , Venezuela about 14% , and Peru is also a major source country.

If you mean “what percent of each country’s population lives in the USA,” the answer is different. A source on countries with the highest shares of their populations in the U.S. says Guyana is the standout South American case at 26.5% , while Brazil is much lower at about 0.24% and Colombia about 1.5%.

South American countries with notable U.S. shares

  • Guyana: about 26.5% of its population lives in the U.S..
  • Colombia: about 1.5%.
  • Brazil: about 0.24%.
  • Argentina: about 0.45%.
  • Chile: about 0.48%.
  • Uruguay: about 1.4%.

What this means

The pattern is uneven because the U.S. has especially large immigrant communities from a few countries, while larger countries like Brazil have much bigger home populations, so their U.S.-born share stays relatively small. South Americans also make up only about one in ten U.S. immigrants overall.

Useful framing

If you want a one-line answer: among South American countries, Guyana has the highest proportion of its population living in the U.S., and most larger South American countries have low single-digit percentages.

TL;DR: Guyana leads by a wide margin; Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina are low single digits; Brazil is far below 1%.