| Area Total | 163,820 sq km |
| Climate | tropical; moderated by trade winds |
| Natural Resources | timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold, small amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, and iron ore |
| Imports | $1.293 billion (2017 est.) partners: US 30.6%, Netherlands 14.8%, Trinidad and Tobago 11.4%, China 7.6% (2017) |
| Exports | $2.028 billion (2017 est.) partners: Switzerland 38%, Hong Kong 21.9%, Belgium 10.1%, UAE 7.2%, Guyana 6.1% (2017) |
| Government | presidential republic |
| Capital | Paramaribo |
| Population | 597,900 (July 2018 est.) |
| Ethnicity | Hindustani 27.4%, Maroon 21.7%, Creole 15.7%, Javanese 13.7%, mixed 13.4%, other 7.6%, unspecified 0.6% (2012 est.) |
| Language | Dutch (official), English, Sranang Tongo, Caribbean Hindustani, Javanese |
News about Suriname
- ‘We are crying for rain’: Suriname’s villages go hungry as drought bitesby Jason Pinas in Paramaribo, Suriname on January 14, 2025
After the worst rains in decades, rivers are drying up and crops failing, leaving people in the interior without clean water or healthcare, and cutting transport linksJohn Adjako lets out a deep sigh when his thoughts turn to his income as a boatman. It has been dwindling for the past few months during the drought in the Upper Suriname region where he lives […]
- ‘Royalties for everyone’: Suriname president plans to share oil wealthby Guardian staff and agencies in Paramaribo on November 25, 2024
All Surinamese adults to receive payment from recently discovered oil and gas reserves – ‘no one will be left behind’Suriname’s president has announced a program of “royalties for everyone” as the South American nation plans for a boon from recently discovered oil and gas reserves.Suriname and its neighbor Guyana expect to make billions in the […]
- ‘Will you stop exploring yours?’: Latin America forges ahead on new oil frontierby Andrei Netto in Georgetown, Guyana on July 8, 2024
About half the countries in the region are experiencing a rush in oil exploration that threatens the global drive to achieve net zero. But many argue that they have a right to enrich themselves in the same way the west hasHis raised hands dirty with oil, the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – then in his first term – stood in front of the […]
- ‘Dirty political games’: Suriname is selling its gold and timber – at the cost of tribal land rightsby Bram Ebus in Pokigron, Suriname on February 21, 2024
Communities such as the Saamaka are vocal in opposition to increased mining and logging – but has the country’s claim to fame as the most forested in the world already been fatally undermined?Photographs by Bram Ebus“Welcome to Suriname – the most forested country in the world!” reads a billboard above the entrance of Suriname’s international […]
- How rice hidden by a woman fleeing slavery in the 1700s could help her descendantsby Bram Ebus in Brokopondo on January 29, 2024
Suriname’s Saamaka Maroons still grow rice from seeds an ancestor escaping from a plantation carried in her hair. Now a gene bank seeks to widen use of the rare species to help fight the climate crisisWhen enslaved Africans escaped the Surinamese plantations overseen by Dutch colonists from the 17th to the 19th century, several women ingeniously hid rice […]
