Which Countries Are in the Southern Hemisphere?

The equator divides the Earth into two halves that are nothing alike. The Northern Hemisphere has most of the land and about 87% of the world's population. The Southern Hemisphere is mostly water, and the countries in it are spread thin across the lower halves of South America, Africa, Oceania and a slice of Asia.

Entirely in the Southern Hemisphere

South America: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Falkland Islands. Africa: Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, and the small island states of the south-west Indian Ocean. Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and most other Pacific island nations. That is roughly 30 sovereign countries wholly south of the equator.

Straddling the equator

• South America: Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia. The equator runs through northern Brazil and gives Ecuador its name.
• Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia and São Tomé and Príncipe all sit on the line.
• Asia and Oceania: Indonesia is the big one — the line passes through Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi. Kiribati, Maldives and Nauru are also equator-straddling or equator-adjacent.

Why the two hemispheres feel so different

Seasons are reversed: January is midsummer in Buenos Aires, Cape Town and Sydney. Water dominates, so the Southern Hemisphere's climate is milder and its weather systems less blocked by mountains and continents — the Roaring Forties circle the globe almost uninterrupted. And because there is so little land at high southern latitudes, the southernmost permanently inhabited places are far closer to the equator than their northern equivalents: the southern tip of continental Chile sits at about 54°S, whereas northern Norway and Siberia push past 70°N.

The southernmost capital cities

Wellington, New Zealand, at about 41°S, is the southernmost sovereign capital in the world. Canberra, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Cape Town and Pretoria fill out the list. There is no capital anywhere near as far south as Reykjavík or Helsinki are north.