Guyana

Full name of country: Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Region: South America

Official language: English

Population: 794,099 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Guyanese (singular and plural) (noun), Guyanese (adjective)

Land area: 196,849 sq km (76,004 sq miles)

Water area: 18,120 sq km (6,996 sq miles)

Capital: Georgetown

National anthem: "Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains," by Archibald Leonard Lukerl/Robert Cyril Gladstone Potter

National holiday: Republic Day, February 23 (1970)

Population growth: 0.32% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC –4

Flag: Guyana’s flag is called the Golden Arrowhead. It features a white-bordered golden triangle (the arrowhead) on a green background, and another equilateral triangle of red (with a black border) superimposed on top of that. The flag’s green background represents the country’s agriculture, while the white represents the rivers, as well as the country’s potential. The gold of the arrow signifies the country’s mineral wealth (gold), black symbolizes endurance, and red represents the zeal of its people.

Motto: “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”

Independence: May 26, 1966 (from the UK)

Government type: parliamentary republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: common law system, based on the English model, with some Roman-Dutch civil law influence

The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is the only officially English-speaking country in South America. It is one of three countries on South America's northeast coast, along with Suriname and French Guiana, that are known collectively as the Guianas. The population of Guyana consists of several ethnic groups, including many Indigenous peoples. "Guiana" comes from an Indigenous language and means "land of water" or "land of many waters."

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Guyana has been called the "land of six peoples" because of its multiethnic population. Today, there are five main ethnic groups in Guyana. Amerindians are the Indigenous people of the region, while the other four groups came from Africa, India, Europe (mainly Portugal), and China. During the colonial era, the Portuguese came as indentured laborers and were considered distinct from the other Europeans—hence the "six peoples."

The Indo-Guyanese (people descended from East Indian indentured laborers) and the Afro-Guyanese (people descended from enslaved Africans) are the two largest groups in Guyana, making up 39.8 percent and 29.3 percent of the population, respectively, according to the 2012 National Population and Housing Census. Because of disputes over which group should hold political power, there is some racial tension among Guyana's population. Despite this, however, the major ethnic groups are generally unified. Approximately 19.9 percent of Guyana's people are of mixed descent, 10.5 percent are Indigenous, and 0.5 percent are of other ethnicities, including Chinese, Portuguese, and other Europeans, such as Dutch and French (2012 estimates). The Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese populations have been decreasing in number, and the Indigenous and mixed-race populations have increased.

Most of Guyana's people live in the coastal plain in the northeast part of the country. The capital, Georgetown, lies on the coast and is the most populous city, with a population of around 110,000 in 2018. Other major cities include Linden, which is known for its bauxite and gold mines, and New Amsterdam, an industrial port southeast of Georgetown.

Relations with neighboring countries are generally good. However, Suriname, which shares Guyana's eastern border, and Venezuela, which shares its western border, both claim land that is inside of what Guyana considers its borders. This has caused minor disputes in the past, which have been resolved diplomatically.

Indigenous People: According to the Guyanese government, at the time of the 2012 census, 78,492 Indigenous people lived in nine tribes in Guyana: the Arawaks, the Akawáios, the Caribs, the Patamonas, the Macusis, the Arecunas, the Warraus, the Waiwais, and the Wapishanas. Originally these tribes were seminomadic and settled in family villages. By 2012, most Indigenous Guyanese lived in the northern Barima-Waini and southwestern Upper Takutu–Upper Essequibo regions.

Indigenous Guyanese typically hunt with bows and arrows and live in thatched-roof huts. Many families work on farms, where they cultivate the root vegetable cassava. There are many petroglyphs, which are ancient drawings carved onto rocks, telling the history of the Indigenous peoples in Guyana.

Education: Guyana reportedly has one of the highest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere. In 2021 an estimated 88.8 percent of residents over the age of fifteen could read and write English. Primary school begins at the age of five and a half and lasts six years. Children are required to attend school up to age fifteen. Secondary school placement is determined by a national exam in grade 6.

Schooling in Guyana is provided free of charge through the university level. However, lack of funding has resulted in a general decline in the quality of education.

Health Care: One of Guyana's biggest dilemmas is the prevalence of many deadly tropical diseases. Among the most common infectious diseases are typhoid fever, malaria, hepatitis A, diarrheal diseases, and dengue fever. The mosquito-borne Zika virus also become a concern during the 2010s.

Guyana's health situation is made worse by underfunded public facilities, contaminated water, and few trained health-care professionals. The Guyanese government has tried to improve sewer drainage and water treatment; by 2020 96.8 percent of the population had access to clean water and 96 percent had improved sanitation facilities available. The population is characterized by relatively low life expectancy (70.6 years for men and 74.3 years for women) and a high infant mortality rate (21.1 deaths per 1,000 live births) in 2024.

Guyana's HDI value for 2022 is 0.742— which put the country in the High human development category—positioning it at 95 out of 193 countries and territories.

Food: Guyanese food consists of a variety of ethnic cuisines. Indigenous people typically eat a diet that is based on the cassava root. Cassava can be made into flatbread, and it is also used in making an alcoholic drink called casiri.

East Indian dishes often involve rice and curry. Chinese foods such as noodles and fried meats are popular, as are Portuguese dishes such as bacelhau (garlic pork), bolo do mel (egg soup), and pancakes known as malassados.

Seafood is an important part of the Guyanese diet, which commonly includes shrimp, trout, and snapper. The marketplaces in Guyana's cities sell many tropical fruits such as papayas, guavas, citrus fruits, mangoes, and jackfruits, in addition to locally grown vegetables, beans, and rice.

Arts & Entertainment: Guyanese art is focused on tradition and storytelling. Petroglyphs, native crafts, and historical narratives of ancient people have greatly influenced Guyana's visual arts, music, and literature.

Guyana's notable artists have included Aubrey Williams (1926–90), Donald Locke (1930–2010), Ronald Savory (1933–2019), Philip Moore (1921–2012), and Stanley Greaves (b. 1934). Ancient Guyanese culture is on display in the form of Indigenous artifacts at the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown. The museum was founded by Guyanese painter and anthropologist Denis Williams (1923–98).

Guyanese writers, such as Theodore Wilson Harris (1921–2018), E. R. Braithwaite (1912–2016), Walter Rodney (1942–80), and Edgar Mittelholzer (1909–65), have chronicled their country's cultural and political events in their work.

Guyanese music and dance is focused on the drum. Steel pan percussion is an essential aspect of calypso, which is a blend of African and Caribbean traditional music. Some dances, such as the East Indian kathak, are performed as religious rituals. The African dance known as "cumfa" is a ritual dance specifically honoring the power of the drum.

Cricket is Guyana's most popular sport, and retired cricketer Clive Lloyd remains the country's most revered athlete. Soccer, boxing, tennis, volleyball, and rugby are commonly played as well, and car, horse, and bicycle races are well attended.

Holidays: Republic Day, which takes place on February 23, is Guyana's biggest national holiday. The celebrations on this day, which include parades and calypso music, commemorate the founding of the republic in 1970.

Independence Day is celebrated on May 26, which is the anniversary of Guyana's independence from British rule in 1966. The Afro-Guyanese community is honored in August on Emancipation Day, which celebrates the end of slavery in 1834. The East Indian community is similarly honored with Arrival Day, commemorating the first indentured workers' arrival in the country on May 5, 1838. Other public holidays include Labour Day on May 1, CARICOM Day in early July, and Boxing Day on December 26.

In addition to these secular celebrations, Guyana also observes a number of Christian, Hindu, and Muslim holidays. The biggest Hindu holidays are Phagwah, the spring festival, and Divali, the Festival of Lights. Divali honors the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Muslims in Guyana celebrate the holiday of charity known as Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice; the ritual of daily fasting during the month of Ramadan; and the Prophet Mohammad's birthday.

Environment and Geography

Topography: Guyana has three topographical regions: the coastal plain, the inland forest, and the highlands. The coastal plain is the strip of land on the northeast shore where almost all of the Guyanese population lives. The country's major cities, including the capital, Georgetown, are located in this region. However, most of the coastal plain is farmland, and contains the sugarcane and rice crops.

Forest covered 77.4 percent of Guyana's area in 2018 and contained roughly 1,000 different varieties of hardwood trees.

The highlands in the southwest contain the savanna grasslands and several mountain ranges, such as the Pakaraima Mountains and the Kanuku Mountains. Most of Guyana's Indigenous population lives in this 15,500 square kilometer (6,000 square mile) region.

The highest point in Guyana is atop Mount Roraima, which reaches its peak at 2,775 meters (9,104 feet).

There are many rivers throughout Guyana, the longest of which is the Essequibo. This river flows down the center of the country for 1,014 kilometers (630 miles). Other major rivers are the Demerara, the Courantyne, and the Berbice, which, like the Essequibo, flow north to south.

Several waterfalls are found along Guyana's rivers. These include Kaieteur Falls, Great Falls, King Edward VII Falls, and Marina Falls.

Natural Resources:Bauxite is one of the most abundant minerals found in Guyana. Used in the production of aluminum, it has been an important export for the country. The rainforest has many greenheart trees, which are used in building wharves because of the wood's resistance to salt water.

Other minerals and metals can be found in the sand and soil around Guyana's riverbeds. Some freelance laborers known as "pork-knockers" make their living by digging for gold and diamonds.

Plants & Animals: There are three kinds of forests in Guyana: the mangrove, the hardwood, and the tropical rainforest. The mangrove forests are found along the coast and consist of mangrove trees growing in swamps. Most of the mangrove forests are behind the coastal plain, along the rivers. In these watery habitats, the Victoria Regis water lily thrives as the largest aquatic leafed plant in the world. The Victoria Regis water lily is also Guyana's national flower, and is featured on the national crest.

Hardwood forests are found further inland, near the savanna grassland. Hardwoods are large trees that grow in sandy soil and have expansive root systems. The wood from these trees is one of Guyana's most valuable exports.

The tropical rainforest is in the west and south of Guyana near the Brazilian and Venezuelan borders. Common rainforest trees include the greenheart and the mora. Some other plants native to Guyana's rainforest are the liana vine and the highly poisonous urari vine.

The rainforest is also home to many of Guyana's animal species. Native bird species include parrots and macaws. There are many species of insects in the tropical habitat, including the morpho butterfly and the parasol, or "leaf-cutter" ant, which is responsible for destroying vast amounts of vegetation.

Guyana's rivers and coastal waters are home to many freshwater and saltwater fish. Piranhas and the native lukanani are found in the rivers. Larger fish, such as the arapaima, are caught offshore as a part of Guyana's fishing industry.

Climate: Guyana has a tropical climate, with high temperatures and high average rainfall. Temperatures are warm throughout the year, ranging from 25.1 to 26.6 degrees Celsius (77 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit). The coastal plain receives more rain than the inland forest and highlands regions do.

Economy

Until the early twenty-first century, Guyana was in a state of economic crisis that had begun in the late 1970s. In 1970 Forbes Burnham, then the newly independent nation's first prime minister and later its second president, restructured the government into what he called a "cooperative republic." He intended to end privately owned industry so that all industry would be owned and operated by the government. By the end of the decade, Burnham had nationalized 90 percent of the private sector's share of industry. This eventually caused the economy to collapse, leaving Guyana in debt to many foreign nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Burnham's successor as president, Desmond Hoyte, attempted reconstruction, but Guyana still faced a number of economic problems, such as high unemployment and a low standard of living.

After decades of little to negative growth, the economy began to turn around in 2005. This was due in large part to increases in global commodity prices, particularly gold, and aided by Guyana's entrance into the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy in 2006. From 2005 to 2014, Guyana's economy experienced an average annual growth rate of 4.7 percent, although growth began to slow again in 2015 as commodity prices dropped.

Guyana's gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) was estimated at US$40.539 billion, or US$49,800 per capita, in 2023. The service sector was the largest sector of the economy at that time.

Industry: Mines in Aroima, Linden, and the Berbice River region provide bauxite and gold, two of Guyana's main exports. These and other materials are processed by the country's manufacturing sector, which also produces rail containers, rum, and textiles.

In addition to CARICOM nations (including Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago), Guyana's primary trading partners are Canada, the United States, China, and Panama.

Guyana's low population inhibits economic growth. The main problem is that there are too few people in the labor force for industries to effectively exploit natural resources, such as the abundant hardwoods in the forests.

In the late 2010s, crude oil was discovered off the coast of Guyana, and production was projected to rival that of oil-rich Qatar within a decade.

Agriculture:Sugarcane and rice crops account for much of Guyana's exports, making agriculture a key sector of Guyana's economy. Almost all of the sugar and rice fields are located in the country's coastal plain region. Since the plain is four feet below sea level, irrigation is essential to the protection of farm land. Sea walls, dikes, and drainage systems keep the crops from being flooded by the ocean. Other agricultural exports included shellfish, processed fish, molasses, and timber. Beef cattle, pigs, and poultry are also raised.

Tourism: Tourism is a small sector of Guyana's economy; in 2019 there were only 315,000 tourist arrivals, many of whom were interested in ecotourism. This number dropped to 86,400 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began that year, although the sector remained fairly small throughout the early 2020s. Due to lack of hotels, damaged roads, and poor funding, Guyana's tourism is limited. The tourists who do visit the country are drawn to the natural beauty of its waterfalls, savannas, and rainforest.

Government

Since obtaining its independence from Great Britain in 1966, Guyana has functioned as a parliamentary republic. Although the executive branch has both a president and a prime minister, the president is both chief of state and head of government. The prime minister is appointed by the president and serves as chief assistant to the president with respect to executive functions, in addition to leading the legislature, the sixty-five-seat National Assembly.

The age of suffrage in Guyana is eighteen. Voters select an assembly member, not a presidential candidate, to support. Once a party wins a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, the president of that party (predesignated as the party's official candidate) serves a five-year term. There are no presidential term limits.

Although there are ten political parties, only two—the left-wing People's Progressive Party (PPP) and the center-left People's National Congress (PNC; later People's National Congress Reform)—dominated the Guyanese government after independence. The two parties traditionally represented the Indo-Guyanese and the Afro-Guyanese populations, respectively. The racial tensions between the two ethnic groups led to political discord, mainly because each group asserts their right to full representation in the government. A multiracial party, the Alliance for Change (AFC), was founded in 2004 and gained significant representation during the 2011 elections, a development that many hoped would signal the end of racial politics in the country.

In the 2015 general elections, the AFC won seven seats, while a political alliance called A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) won twenty-six seats. As no single party won a majority, the AFC and the APNU formed a coalition government, and APNU leader David A. Granger became president. Granger faced a successful vote of no-confidence in 2018, and following a constitutional crisis in which Granger remained in power for over a year following the vote, a new president, Irfaan Ali, was sworn in to office in 2020.

There are ten administrative regions in Guyana. Local residents elect members to regional democratic councils (RDCs), which in turn administer the designated regions.

Interesting Facts

• St. George's Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, reaches over 40 meters (132 feet) into the air, making it the “largest wooden church building in the world,” according to UNESCO.
• Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis became the first Guyanese boxer to win a world championship title in 2001.
• The area surrounding Guyana's Mount Roraima is said to be the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel The Lost World (1912).
• Guyana is home to Kaieteur Falls, the world's largest single-drop waterfall by volume of water.
• Cubans have been among Guyana's most frequent visitors, particularly since the US government moved its visa processing for Cubans to Guyana from Colombia in 2018.

Bibliography

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