Demographics of Guyana

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Guyana, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Guyana's population (Guyanese people) is made up of five main ethnic groups: Amerindians, Africans, Indians, Europeans, and Chinese. Ninety percent of the inhabitants live on the narrow coastal plain, where population density is more than 115 persons per square kilometer (380/mile²). The population density for Guyana as a whole is low—less than four persons per square kilometer.

Although the government has provided free education from nursery school to the university level since 1975, it has not allocated sufficient funds to maintain the standards of what had been considered the best educational system in the region. Many school buildings are in poor condition, there is a shortage of text and exercise books, the number of teachers has declined, and fees are being charged at the university level for some courses of study for the first time.

Guyana continues to be influenced by British culture as well distantly with the cultures of the United States, Europe, Africa, the Islamic world, East and South Asian countries, and Latin America, esp. with neighboring countries of Venezuela and Brazil. It is one of three countries and two territories to form The Guianas, such as Suriname and the island of Trinidad and Tobago; and territories like the French Guiana and parts of neighboring countries named for Guayana (Venezuela) and Amapa of Brazil.

There is an organization dedicated to the integration of Guyana with the United States, GuyanaUSA. Their claim is based on the idea that Guyana has strong connections with the United States in terms of people (100,000 people have joint Guyanese American citizenship and 350,000 Guyanese live in the U.S., half as many as remain in Guyana).^{[citation needed]}

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population statistics

Population: 748,486
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0–14 years: 35.5% (male 135,629; female 131,518; total 267,147)
15–64 years: 66% (male 226,058; female 226,551; total 452,609)
65 years and over: 4.2% (male 14,347; female 17,120; total 31,467) (2002 census)^[1]

Health Data

Population growth rate: 0.234% (2007 est.)

Birth rate: 18.09 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Death rate: 8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Net migration rate: -7.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 31.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.04 years
male: 61.08 years
female: 67.15 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.11 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Ethnicity and Religion

See also: Religion in Guyana

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

Ethnic groups: East Indian 43.5%, Black African 30.2%, mixed heritage 16.7%, Amerindian 9.2%, other 0.46% and an estimated 100,000 United States/American expatriates.^[2]

Religions: Hindu 28.4%, Pentecostal 16.9%, Roman Catholic 8.1%, Muslim 7.2%, Anglican 6.9%,
Seventh Day Adventist 5%, Other Christian denominations 20.5%, no religion 4.3%, Rastafarian 0.5%, Bahá'í 0.1%, other religions 2.2% and a small Jewish community.^[3]

Language and Literacy

Main article: Languages of Guyana

Languages:

English (official), Guyanese Creole, Amerindian (Cariban) languages, a smaller number speak Hindi^{[citation needed]}, Chinese languages and a Portuguese-speaking community.

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
total population: 97.1%
male: 98.6%
female: 96.5% (1995 est.)

Notes

1. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (p. 44)
2. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (pp. 27-28)
3. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (pp. 32-34)

External links

• CIA World Factbook -- Guyana

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.