Suriname is the smallest sovereign country in South America by area. It covers roughly 164,000 square kilometres, making it smaller than Uruguay, Guyana and every other independent country on the continent.
Suriname lies on the northeastern Atlantic coast between Guyana and French Guiana, with Brazil along its southern border. Much of the country is covered by tropical rainforest and sparsely populated interior terrain, while most residents live in the cultivated coastal zone around the capital, Paramaribo.
The country’s history helps explain its distinctive identity. Suriname was colonised mainly by the Dutch and remained part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands before becoming independent on 25 November 1975. Dutch is still the official language, an unusual feature in South America.
“Smallest” here means smallest sovereign country by total area. Suriname is also South America’s least populous independent country, but it is not the continent’s smallest territory overall: French Guiana is smaller, yet it is an overseas department of France rather than a sovereign state. That distinction makes Suriname the canonical answer.