60 Fun Facts About Guyana

What is the capital and largest city of Guyana?

The capital sits at the mouth of the Demerara River, partly below high-tide level and protected by a long seawall.

Guyana is the only country in mainland South America with which official language?

Most people actually speak Guyanese Creole day to day, and the country is treated culturally as part of the Commonwealth Caribbean.

The name "Guyana" comes from an Indigenous Amerindian word meaning what?

The name once covered a much larger region including Suriname, French Guiana and parts of Venezuela and Brazil.

Which European power was the first to establish colonies in what is now Guyana?

Pomeroon, Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara were all Dutch foundations before Britain took control in 1796.

In which year did Britain merge its three former Dutch colonies into the single colony of British Guiana?

The name lasted until independence 135 years later; Britain had formally acquired the territories under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.

In which year did Guyana gain independence from the United Kingdom?

Independence came on 26 May, and the country stayed a member of the Commonwealth when it became a republic four years later.

Guyana became a republic on 23 February of which year?

Republic Day is still celebrated every 23 February with the Mashramani festival.

The annual Mashramani festival, held on 23 February, celebrates what event?

The name comes from an Amerindian word meaning "celebration after cooperative or hard work", and it is one of the few festivals shared by every ethnic group in the country.

How many people died in the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide in northwest Guyana?

The settlement's formal name was the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project; 909 people died at Jonestown itself and others at Port Kaituma and in the capital.

Which US congressman was murdered at the Port Kaituma airstrip on the day of the Jonestown deaths?

He had flown to Guyana to investigate the commune; his killing at the airstrip preceded the poisonings at the settlement.

Which former US president oversaw Guyana's 1992 elections, the first recognised as free and fair since 1964?

The vote brought Cheddi Jagan to the presidency and ended decades of dominance by the People's National Congress.

Which Guyanese dentist-turned-leader became in 1953 the first Hindu to head a government outside the subcontinent?

He co-founded the People's Progressive Party with his American-born wife Janet, who later became president herself.

Who served as Guyana's first executive president, from 1980 until his death in 1985?

He had led the country since 1964, first as premier and prime minister, and nationalised the bauxite and sugar industries.

Which Guyanese historian, author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was killed in 1980?

He earned his PhD in African history at London's SOAS at just 24 and was killed at 38 by an explosive device planted in his car.

Who became Guyana's ninth president after the disputed 2020 election?

Results took five months to declare after the March 2020 vote; he was re-elected for a second term in September 2025.

Which neighbour claims the territory west of Guyana's longest river, two-thirds of the country?

An 1899 Paris tribunal awarded the land to British Guiana, but the claim was revived in 1962 and went to the International Court of Justice in 2018.

Which is the longest river in Guyana, at about 1,010 km?

Several large islands sit at its mouth, and the disputed western third of the country takes its name from the river.

Which river forms Guyana's border with Suriname?

It is the country's second-longest river; the two countries still dispute a triangle of land near its headwaters.

Kaieteur Falls plunges over which river?

The river then empties into the country's longest river; the falls sit inside Kaieteur National Park in the centre of the country.

How high is the single sheer drop of Kaieteur Falls?

Adding the cascades below the main plunge brings the total to 251 m, and its average flow is about 663 cubic metres per second.

Compared with Niagara Falls, Kaieteur Falls is roughly how much taller?

It is also about twice the height of Victoria Falls, and few waterfalls anywhere combine that height with so much water.

Which British geologist led the party that first brought Kaieteur Falls to European attention in 1870?

He returned a year later to measure the falls properly and published Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana in 1876.

Which table-top mountain of the Pakaraima range is Guyana's highest point?

The 2,772 m Guyanese high point is a protrusion on the plateau's northern edge; the mountain's true summit, at 2,810 m, lies across the border.

Guyana's tepuis are said to have inspired which 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle?

The flat-topped mountains, cut off by sheer cliffs, host plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.

In Pemon, the name of Guyana's highest mountain combines words meaning "great" and which colour?

The mountain was first climbed by a British expedition in 1884, and its summit flora and geology are still only partly studied.

What is Guyana's national bird, also known as the Canje pheasant?

It is the only surviving species in its taxonomic family, and locals call it the stinkbird because of the smell of its fermenting diet.

Which giant water lily is Guyana's national flower and appears on its coat of arms?

It is the second-largest member of the water lily family and is native to Guyana and the Amazon basin.

Which animals serve as the supporters on Guyana's coat of arms?

They hold a pickaxe, sugar cane and a stalk of rice, standing for the mining, sugar and rice industries.

What is Guyana's national motto?

The motto appears on a scroll beneath the shield, under an Amerindian head-dress known as the Cacique's Crown.

By what name is Guyana's national flag known?

Its red stands for zeal, gold for mineral wealth, green for agriculture and forests, black for endurance and white for the rivers.

Guyana's flag was designed by which American vexillologist?

The College of Arms in London later suggested adding the black and white borders that separate the coloured triangles.

According to the 2002 census, which is Guyana's largest ethnic group?

Descendants of Indian indentured labourers made up 43.5%, followed by Afro-Guyanese at 30.2% and people of mixed heritage at 16.7%.

In 2012, roughly what share of Guyana's population was Hindu?

Christians were 64% and Muslims 7%; for decades neither Hindu nor Muslim marriages were legally recognised in the colony.

Roughly what proportion of Guyana's people live on the narrow coastal strip?

That strip is only 16 to 64 km wide and makes up around a tenth of the country's land area.

Which company discovered major oil reserves off Guyana's coast in 2015?

Commercial production began in 2019, and billions more barrels have since been found offshore.

The oil finds off Guyana since 2017 total more than how many barrels?

It was the largest addition to global oil reserves since the 1970s, and the economy grew by 49% in 2020 alone.

Into how many administrative regions is Guyana divided?

The regions are further split into 27 neighbourhood councils; the capital lies in Region 4, Demerara-Mahaica.

Guyana, Suriname and which other territory are the only places in South America driving on the left?

The habit is a British colonial leftover; Suriname kept left-hand traffic from its Dutch era.

Which regional organisation has its headquarters in Guyana?

The Caribbean Community secretariat sits in the capital, underlining how strongly the country identifies with the Caribbean rather than South America.

What was Guyana's capital called before it was renamed for King George III in 1812?

The name honoured a Dutch West India Company president, and it survives today in the city's famous cast-iron Stabroek Market.

What nickname does Guyana's capital carry?

Parts of the city lie as much as 2 m below high-tide level, kept dry by a seawall and a Dutch-style network of canals and sluice gates called kokers.

St George's Cathedral in Guyana's capital, 43.5 m tall, is built mainly from which material?

The Gothic Revival building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and opened in 1892, is one of the tallest wooden churches in the world.

The Demerara Harbour Bridge holds which world ranking among floating bridges?

The country's Berbice Bridge is the sixth-longest floating bridge in the world.

El Dorado rum is made by which Guyanese company?

It still runs historic wooden stills such as the Port Mourant and Versailles, designs no longer operating anywhere else in the world.

Guyanese pepperpot, the Christmas stew, is flavoured and preserved with which cassava-based syrup?

Because the syrup keeps the meat from spoiling, the pot can be reheated and eaten over several days.

Which giant fish of Guyana's rivers is the world's largest scaled freshwater fish?

It can reach 3 m in length and has to surface to breathe air; overfishing has made it rare across much of its range.

Which sea turtle is the main species nesting on Guyana's Shell Beach?

The beach runs about 145 km along the northwest coast, and in places it is made of pure shells.

Which Indigenous people manage Kanashen, the world's largest community-owned conservation area?

The government granted them title to more than 4,000 square kilometres in the Konashen district in 2004.

Which singer of "Electric Avenue" was born in Plaisance, British Guiana, in 1948?

He first found fame in the Equals with "Baby, Come Back" and later invented a genre he called ringbang.

Which Guyanese batsman, famous for a crab-like stance, was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2008?

He scored more than 20,000 international runs for the West Indies and was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2022.

Which Sri Lankan bowler took four wickets in four balls at Providence Stadium in the 2007 World Cup?

The 15,000-seat ground on the east bank of the Demerara was built for the tournament and is now home to the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

In which year did Guyana's national football team qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time?

The national side finished third in its group; the country has never reached a FIFA World Cup.

Balatá, the natural latex once tapped in Guyana's Rupununi savannah, was famously used to make what?

It also served for temporary dental fillings and for the figurines carved by the Macushi people.

Indian indentured labour to Guyana began in 1838 and ended in which year?

Almost all freed slaves left the plantations at emancipation in 1838, which is why planters turned to indenture contracts from India.

Christopher Columbus sighted the coast of Guyana in 1498 during which of his voyages?

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote an account of the region in 1596, but neither Spain nor England founded lasting colonies there.

Guyana's Umana Yana, a national monument in the capital, is what kind of structure?

The benab was built in 1972 for a meeting of Non-Aligned foreign ministers and rebuilt in 2016 after a fire.

Which piece of Guyanese territory did Venezuelan troops seize in October 1966?

It has remained under Venezuelan occupation ever since, one strand of a border dispute now before the ICJ.

Which was the first Dutch colony established in what is now Guyana, in 1581?

Essequibo followed in 1616, Berbice in 1627 and Demerara in 1752.

How many Indigenous tribes reside in Guyana, including the Wai Wai, Macushi and Warao?

The others are the Patamona, Lokono, Kalina, Wapishana, Pemon and Akawaio.

By roughly what percentage did Guyana's economy grow in 2020, by some accounts the world's fastest?

Growth followed the 2015 oil discovery and the start of commercial drilling in 2019.