Guyana
Capital: Georgetown · South America
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America.
Photo: Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest, near Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
Photo: Neil Palmer/ CIAT, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
St. George's Cathedral, Georgetown in 2019
Photo: Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
The High Court—renamed the Victoria Law Courts under the former Head of State’s rule—was completed in 1887, the Golden Jubilee year of the reign of Queen Victoria (r.…
Photo: Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
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With a land area of 214,969 km2 (83,000 sq mi), Guyana is the third-smallest sovereign state by area in mainland South America after Uruguay and Suriname, and is the second-least populous sovereign state in South America after Suriname; it is also one of the least densely populated countries on Earth. The official language of the country is English, although a large part of the population is bilingual in English and the Indigenous languages. Guyana is the only country in mainland South America to have English as the official language.
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Etymology
The name "Guyana" is derived from the Guianas, an earlier name for a larger region that included the areas now called Guyana (British Guiana), Suriname (Dutch Guiana), French Guiana, the Guayana Region in Venezuela (Spanish Guiana), and Amapá in Brazil (Portuguese Guiana). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name "Guyana" comes from an Indigenous Amerindian language and means "land of many waters".
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History
What is now Guyana has been inhabited for millennia. Nine Indigenous tribes reside in Guyana: the Wai Wai, Macushi, Patamona, Lokono, Kalina, Wapishana, Pemon, Akawaio, and Warao. Many of these peoples practised shifting agriculture alongside hunting. Historians speculate that the Lokono and Kalina originated in the South American hinterland and migrated northward, first to the present-day Guianas and then to the Caribbean islands. The Lokono, mainly cultivators, hunters, and fishermen, migrated to the Caribbean islands before the Kalina and settled throughout the region.
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Geography
The territory controlled by Guyana lies between latitudes 1° and 9°N, and longitudes 56° and 62°W; it is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries.
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Government and politics
The politics of Guyana takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, in which the president of Guyana is both head of state and head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the president and the National Assembly of Guyana. Historically, politics is a source of tension in the country, and violent riots have often broken out during elections.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the political landscape was dominated by the People's National Congress.
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Economy
The main economic activities in Guyana are agriculture (rice and Demerara sugar), bauxite and gold mining, timber, seafood, minerals, crude oil and natural gas. Guyana's gold production in 2015 is 14 tonnes (14 long tons; 15 short tons).
Offshore oil production, which began in 2019, has transformed Guyana's economy. According to World Bank estimates, real GDP grew by 43.8% in 2024 and 15.4% in 2025. Oil production reached 261.1 million barrels in 2025, while the non-oil economy grew by 14.3%, supported by agriculture, manufacturing, construction and public investment.
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Demographics
The large majority (about 90%) of Guyana's 744,000 people live along a narrow coastal strip that ranges from a width of 16 to 64 km (10 to 40 mi) inland and makes up approximately 10% of the nation's total land area.
Guyana's population is racially and ethnically heterogeneous, with ethnic groups originating from India, Africa, Europe, and China, as well as Indigenous peoples. Despite their diverse ethnic backgrounds, most groups share a common language of English and its Guyanese English Creole vernacular.
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Culture
Guyana's culture is very similar to that of the English-speaking Caribbean, and has historically been tied to the English-speaking Caribbean as part of the British Empire when it became a possession in the nineteenth century.
The current Guyanese culture began to develop when immigrants (some enslaved, some coerced, others coming of their own accord) adapted and converged with the dominant British culture.
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