Fact check: What percentage of US foreign aid goes to South America?

1. Why you won’t find a clean “South America” percentage — the data are reported differently and inconsistently

Multiple sources note the same underlying problem: U.S. aid tracking commonly aggregates assistance by region labels like the “Western Hemisphere” or “Latin America and the Caribbean,” and official bilateral ODA breakdowns emphasize sub-Saharan Africa and priority country programs instead of a continent-only line item. The reporting therefore yields figures for broader regions, not a neat South America share, and those regional totals vary by source and fiscal year. For example, several reports cite $3.7 billion (5% of total U.S. foreign aid) to the Western Hemisphere in 2023, while USAID-specific accounts list $1.7 billion to Latin America and the Caribbean for 2023–2024 and other estimates show over $2 billion or $2.4 billion in FY2023–2024, reflecting different cutoffs and program inclusions ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [6]}.

2. Concrete recent numbers journalists and analysts do report — the Western Hemisphere and Latin America totals

Published pieces and dashboards repeatedly point to a small share of total U.S. foreign aid being allocated to the hemisphere: the 5% figure tied to $3.7 billion in 2023 appears across multiple summaries, while USAID internal portfolio notes indicate that approximately 75% of USAID’s portfolio is focused in developing regions like Latin America but that the absolute dollar flows to the Western Hemisphere remain modest relative to global aid totals ^{[1] [7] [2]}. Other reporting places Latin America and Caribbean assistance between roughly $1.7 billion and $2.4 billion in recent fiscal years, demonstrating methodological variance even when the same underlying programs are being discussed ^{[3] [4] [6]}.

3. How this fits the bigger picture — top recipients and priorities crowd out South American totals

Contextual reporting shows the U.S. foreign assistance budget in 2023 approached $68 billion with the largest shares directed to countries and crises such as Ukraine, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan and several sub-Saharan African countries, which diminishes the proportional share available for the Western Hemisphere and for South America specifically. Because major emergency and security aid packages have dominated recent U.S. assistance, the hemisphere’s percentage remains low even as bilateral development portfolios and migration-related programming draw attention to Latin America and the Caribbean in policy debates ^{[2] [5]}.

4. Why the range in figures matters — different definitions, agency portfolios, and proposed budget changes

Discrepancies among the provided analyses arise from differing definitions (Western Hemisphere vs. Latin America and Caribbean vs. South America), the inclusion or exclusion of multilateral contributions, and timing of fiscal-year accounting. Proposed budgetary actions — such as cuts to voluntary contributions to international organizations — are also flagged as potential drivers that would change future shares of U.S. aid to the region if enacted, meaning any percentage is contingent on evolving appropriations and policy choices ^{[7] [1] [4]}.

5. Bottom line for an answer-seeker: a defensible short reply and where the uncertainty lies

A defensible, evidence-based short answer is: There is not a single authoritative published percentage for South America alone; recent reporting places the Western Hemisphere at about 5% of U.S. foreign aid in 2023 (~$3.7 billion), while Latin America and the Caribbean totals range roughly $1.7–$2.4 billion across FY2023–2024 accounts. That range reflects reporting differences and program definitions; to convert those region-level dollars into a South America-only percentage would require disaggregated bilateral ODA tables from U.S. government databases or detailed country-level budget breakdowns, which the current set of analyses do not provide ^{[2] [3] [4] [6] [8]}.