Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half (hemisphere) of

Earth

that is

south

of the

Equator

. It contains all or parts of five

continent

s (

Antarctica

, Australia, about 90% of

South America

, approx. one third of

Africa

, and some islands off the continental mainland of

Asia

), four

ocean

s (

Indian Ocean

,

South Atlantic Ocean

,

Southern Ocean

, and

South Pacific Ocean

),

New Zealand

and most of the Pacific Islands in

Oceania

. Its surface is 80.9% water, compared with 60.7% water in the case of the

Northern Hemisphere

, and it contains 32.7% of Earth's land.

Owing to the tilt of Earth's rotation relative to the

Sun

and the

ecliptic plane

,

summer

is from December to February (inclusive) and

winter

is from June to August (inclusive). September 22 or 23 is the vernal

equinox

and March 20 or 21 is the autumnal equinox. The South Pole is in the center of the southern hemispherical region.

Characteristics

Southern Hemisphere

climate

s tend to be slightly milder than those at similar latitudes in the

Northern Hemisphere

, except in the

Antarctic

which is colder than the

Arctic

. This is because the Southern Hemisphere has significantly more ocean and much less land; water heats up and cools down more slowly than land. The differences are also attributed to oceanic heat transfer and differing extents of greenhouse trapping.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun passes from east to west through the north, although north of the Tropic of Capricorn the mean sun can be directly overhead or due north at midday. The Sun follows a right-to-left trajectory through the northern sky unlike the left-to-right motion of the Sun when seen from the Northern Hemisphere as it passes through the southern sky. Sun-cast shadows turn anticlockwise throughout the day and

sundial

s have the hours increasing in the anticlockwise direction. During

solar eclipse

s viewed from a point to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the Moon moves from left to right on the disc of the Sun (see, for example, photos with timings of the solar eclipse of November 13, 2012), while viewed from a point to the north of the Tropic of Cancer (i.e., in the Northern Hemisphere), the Moon moves from right to left during solar eclipses.

The

Coriolis effect

causes cyclones and tropical storms to spin clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere (as opposed to anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere).

The southern temperate zone, a subsection of the Southern Hemisphere, is nearly all oceanic.

The Sagittarius constellation that includes the

galactic centre

is a southern constellation as well as both Magellanic Clouds. This, combined with clearer skies, makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere with brighter and more numerous stars.

Forests in the Southern Hemisphere have special features which set them apart from those in the Northern Hemisphere. Both Chile and Australia share, for example, unique

beech

species or ''

Nothofagus

'', and New Zealand has members of the closely related genera '' Lophozonia'' and '' Fuscospora''. The

eucalyptus

is native to

Australia

but is now also planted in Southern Africa and

Latin America

for pulp production, and increasingly,

biofuel

uses.

Demographics and human geography

More than 800 million people live in the Southern Hemisphere, representing around 10–12% of the total global human population. Of those 800 million people, more than 200 million live in

Brazil

, the largest country by land area in the Southern Hemisphere, while 145 million live on the island of

Java

, the most populous one in the world. The most populous country in the Southern Hemisphere is

Indonesia

, with 267 million people (roughly 30 million of whom live north of the Equator on the northern portions of the islands of

Sumatra

,

Borneo

, and

Sulawesi

, as well as the most of North Maluku, while the rest of the population lives in the Southern Hemisphere).

Portuguese

is the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere, with over 230 million speakers in eight countries – mostly in Brazil.

The largest metropolitan areas in the Southern Hemisphere are

Jakarta

(33 million people),

São Paulo

(22 million), Kinshasa-Brazzaville (17 million),

Buenos Aires

(16 million),

Rio de Janeiro

, Surabaya (12 million each),

Johannesburg

(11 million),

Nairobi

,

Lima

(10 million each), Bandung (9 million),

Luanda

(8 million),

Dar es Salaam

(7 million),

Santiago

, Semarang (6 million each),

Sydney

,

Belo Horizonte

and

Melbourne

(5 million each). Important financial and commercial centers in the Southern Hemisphere include São Paulo, where the B3 (stock exchange) is headquartered, along with Sydney, home to the Australian Securities Exchange, Jakarta, seat of the Indonesia Stock Exchange, Johannesburg, home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Buenos Aires, headquarters of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, the oldest stock market in the Southern Hemisphere.

Among the most developed nations in the Southern Hemisphere is Australia, with a nominal GDP ''per capita'' of US$51,885 and a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.944, the eighth-highest in the world as of the 2020 report. New Zealand is also well developed, with a nominal GDP ''per capita'' of US$38,675 and an HDI of 0.931, putting it at number 14 in the world in 2020. The least developed nations in the Southern Hemisphere cluster in Africa and Oceania, with

Mozambique

and

Burundi

at the lowest ends of the HDI, at 0.456 (number 181 in the world) and 0.433 (number 185 in the world), respectively. The nominal GDPs ''per capita'' of these two countries do not go above US$550, a tiny fraction of the incomes enjoyed by Australians and New Zealanders.

The most widespread religions in the Southern Hemisphere are

Christianity

in South America, Southern Africa, Australia and Oceania, followed by Islam in most of the islands of Indonesia and in parts of southeastern Africa, and

Hinduism

, which is mostly concentrated on and around the islands of

Bali

,

Mauritius

,

Fiji

and

Lombok

.

The oldest continuously inhabited city in the Southern Hemisphere is

Bogor

, in western

Java

, which was founded in 669 CE. Ancient texts from the Hindu kingdoms prevalent in the area definitively record 669 CE as the year when Bogor was founded. However, some evidence shows that

Zanzibar

, an ancient port with around 200,000 inhabitants off the coast of

Tanzania

, may be older than Bogor. A Greco-Roman text written between 1 and 100 CE, the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', mentioned the island of ''Menuthias'' (Ancient Greek: Μενουθιάς) as a trading port on the east African coast, which is probably the small Tanzanian island of Unguja on which Zanzibar is located. The oldest monumental civilizations in the Southern Hemisphere are the Norte Chico civilization and Casma–Sechin culture from the northern coast of Peru. These civilizations built cities, pyramids, and plazas in the coastal river valleys of northern Peru with some ruins dated back to 3600 BCE.

List of continents and countries or territories

Continents and submerged continent

*

Africa

– about one-third, from south of

Mogadishu

in

Somalia

in the east to south of

Libreville

in

Gabon

in the west. From the

Equator

(

Latitude

: 0°) to

Cape Agulhas

(

Latitude

: 34°50′S).
*

Antarctica

– the entire continent and its associated islands are wholly within the Southern Hemisphere. From Prime Head, at the northern tip of the

Trinity Peninsula

(

Latitude

: 63°12′48″S) to the South Pole (

Latitude

: 90° S).
*

Asia

– only the southern portion of Maritime Southeast Asia, including

East Timor

and most of

Indonesia

, plus the

British Indian Ocean Territory

and

two out of 26 atolls

of

Maldives

in the

Indian Ocean

. The entire continental mainland is wholly within the

Northern Hemisphere

. From the

Equator

(

Latitude

: 0°) to Pamana Island,

Indonesia

(

Latitude

: 11°00'S) or when Cocos Islands included as part of Southeast Asia, then South Island (

Latitude

: 12°04'S).
* Americas – mostly South America, from south of the Amazon River mouth in

Brazil

in the east to north of Quito in Ecuador in the west. From the

Equator

(

Latitude

: 0°) to Águila Islet, Diego Ramírez Islands, Chile (

Latitude

: 56°32′16″S), or, if the South Sandwich Islands are included as part of South America, Cook Island, South Sandwich Islands, Cook Island, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (

Latitude

: 59°29′20″S)
* Australia – the entire continent and its associated islands such as Tasmania and New Guinea are wholly within the Southern Hemisphere. From the

Equator

(

Latitude

: 0°) to Bishop and Clerk Islets, Tasmania,

Australia

(

Latitude

: 55°03′ S)
* Zealandia – the entire submerged continent, including New Caledonia,

New Zealand

, Norfolk Island, and other associated low-lying islands above sea level, is wholly within the Southern Hemisphere. From Belep, New Caledonia, France (

Latitude

: 19°45′00″S) to Jacquemart Island (

Latitude

: 52°37′S)

Countries and territories

See also

* Land and water hemispheres
*

Northern Hemisphere

* South Pole

Notes

References

External links

Southern Hemisphere Countries 2021
*

{{Authority control

Southern Hemisphere,
Hemispheres of Earth