50 Fun Facts About Suriname

Suriname is the only independent country outside Europe where which language is official?

About 60% speak it natively. Suriname joined the Dutch Language Union in 2004, and its dialect has its own dictionary.

What is the capital and largest city of Suriname?

Locals call it 'Foto'. Roughly half the country lives there, and its wooden colonial centre has been a UNESCO site since 2002.

Suriname is the smallest country by area and population on which continent?

About 613,000 people live in an area the size of Tunisia, most of them along the northern coast, making it one of the least densely populated countries anywhere.

Which two countries border Suriname to the east and west?

Brazil lies to the south and the Atlantic to the north. Both the eastern and western borders are partly disputed along the Marowijne and Corantijn rivers.

Under the 1667 Treaty of Breda, the Dutch kept Suriname and let their rivals keep which settlement?

At the time the sugar colony looked like the better bargain. The English renamed their prize after the Duke of York.

In which year did Suriname become independent from the Netherlands?

Independence Day is 25 November. Nearly a third of the population had already emigrated to the Netherlands, fearing what came next.

Roughly what share of Suriname is covered by rainforest?

That is the highest forest cover of any nation, and the country has run a carbon-negative economy since 2014.

What is the English-based creole that serves as Suriname's everyday lingua franca?

Dutch is the prestige language and Sranan the street language, a classic diglossia. Sarnami is the Hindustani of the Indian-descended community.

Suriname has the highest proportion in the Americas of followers of which religion?

About 13.9%, mostly of Javanese or Indian descent. Hindus, at a fifth of the population, rank third in the hemisphere after Guyana and Trinidad.

In the centre of the capital, a synagogue stands directly beside what other building?

The two congregations have been known to share a car park when their services coincide, a much-cited emblem of the country's tolerance.

Suriname's largest ethnic group descends from indentured labourers from which country?

Indo-Surinamese, locally 'Hindustanis', are about 27% of the population. Javanese from the Dutch East Indies are another 14%.

What are the descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped into Suriname's interior called?

The Saramaka, Ndyuka, Paramaka, Kwinti, Aluku and Matawai won treaties and sovereign status from the Dutch in the 18th century.

In which year did the Netherlands abolish slavery in Suriname?

Freed people still had to work the plantations for ten more years for minimal pay. 1 July is celebrated as Ketikoti, 'the chains are cut'.

During the Civil War, which US president explored resettling freed African Americans in Suriname?

Talks with the Dutch government went nowhere and the idea was dropped after 1864.

Which army sergeant led the 1980 coup and later served as elected president from 2010 to 2020?

He was convicted in 2019 for the 1982 December murders and sentenced to 20 years, but died a fugitive in December 2024.

The 1982 'December murders' of 15 regime critics took place at which landmark in the capital?

The fort was renamed after the Dutch province that paid for the fleet that took the colony in 1667. It is now a museum.

In 1990 the army chief dismissed the civilian government in an episode popularly known as what?

He sacked the ministers by phone. The 1980 takeover, by contrast, is remembered as the Sergeants' Coup.

In which event did Suriname's Anthony Nesty take swimming gold in Seoul in 1988?

He beat American Matt Biondi by a hundredth of a second, then added bronze in Barcelona. He now coaches the University of Florida.

Which of these Dutch football greats was born in Suriname or is of Surinamese descent?

So were Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and Virgil van Dijk, among many others.

Suriname's flag has green, white and red bands with what in the centre?

It was chosen in a national competition and first raised on independence day; the star stands for unity and a golden future.

What is Suriname's highest mountain?

It rises 1,286 metres and is named after a Dutch queen. Tafelberg, the 'table mountain', is a flat-topped tepui.

The Brokopondo Reservoir, one of the world's largest, covers roughly what share of Suriname's land?

Its official name honours the engineer Van Blommestein. It was built to power the aluminium industry, flooding Maroon villages.

Which ore, mined until Alcoa left in 2015, dominated Suriname's 20th-century economy?

The US sent 2,000 troops in 1941 to guard the mines for the Allied war effort. Gold and oil have since taken over.

Which product made up 60-80% of Suriname's export earnings in the early 2020s?

Almost half of it came from small-scale miners, whose use of mercury has poisoned rivers along the French Guiana border.

What is the name of Suriname's state oil company?

Its name simply means 'state oil' in Dutch. Offshore discoveries in the 2020s have raised hopes of a Guyana-style boom.

What has been Suriname's currency since 2004?

It replaced the guilder at 1,000 to 1. In everyday speech people call it 'the SRD' and reserve 'dollar' for the US kind.

In which year did the official English spelling change from 'Surinam' to 'Suriname'?

The old form survives in Surinam Airways and the Surinam toad, a flat frog whose young hatch out of pockets in the mother's back.

The Surinam toad is famous for an unusual way of raising its young. What is it?

Fully formed froglets emerge from the honeycomb of skin after four to five months. The flat, leaf-like frog ambushes prey by suction.

Before Suriname, the first documented European colony in the Guianas was founded in 1630 by which country?

Marshall's Creek on the Suriname River came first, then a colony sent by the governor of Barbados that lasted until the Dutch conquest of 1667.

Jodensavanne, 50 km south of the capital, was a 17th-century plantation community founded by whom?

Jews once owned over half of the colony's sugar plantations and had their own courts and civil guard until 1825. The synagogue ruins survive.

Approximately how many enslaved Africans were shipped to Suriname during the Atlantic slave trade?

Historian C. R. Boxer wrote that 'man's inhumanity to man just about reached its limits in Surinam'.

From 1954 until independence, Suriname had what status?

It ranked alongside the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands itself, which kept control of defence and foreign affairs.

The interior tribes descended from escaped slaves rose in a civil war from 1986 under which rebel leader?

More than 10,000 people, mostly Maroons, fled to French Guiana. Brunswijk later became vice-president of the country he had fought.

In July 2025 who became Suriname's first female president?

Parliament elected the National Democratic Party leader. Marijke Djwalapersad had been the first woman to chair the National Assembly.

How many administrative districts is Suriname divided into?

Each has a commissioner appointed by the president. Sipaliwini, the vast forested interior, is by far the largest.

The Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in the capital is notable for being built largely of what?

It began life as a Jewish theatre in 1809, was consecrated in 1885 and became a minor basilica under Pope Francis in 2014.

New Year's Eve in Suriname, known as Owru Yari, is marked at midnight by detonating what?

Strings of red firecrackers, sometimes hundreds of metres long, are unrolled in the streets and set off in one deafening go.

Suriname's Hindu, Javanese and Chinese communities each celebrate a public holiday marking what?

Indian Arrival Day, Prawas Din, falls on 5 June, the date the Lalla Rookh docked in 1873.

In which year did Suriname make its debut at the CONCACAF Gold Cup?

They lost to Jamaica and Costa Rica but beat Guadeloupe 2-1. Suriname plays in CONCACAF, not South America's CONMEBOL.

K-1 kickboxing world champions Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky both have roots in which country?

Melvin Manhoef, Tyrone Spong and Jairzinho Rozenstruik continue the tradition of Surinamese fighters in Dutch gyms.

In which event did Letitia Vriesde win 1995 Worlds silver, the first for a South American woman?

She finished behind Cuba's Ana Quirot and added a bronze in 2001, along with a haul of Pan American medals.

About how many Surinamese-origin people lived in the Netherlands in 2013?

Mass emigration began before independence, when people could choose Dutch citizenship, and continued through the military years.

Suriname's forested interior sits on which ancient geological formation?

Its flat-topped tepuis, like Tafelberg, are among the oldest rock formations on Earth.

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in which year?

Established in 1998, it protects 1.6 million hectares of unbroken forest. Paramaribo's inner city followed onto the list in 2002.

Per the World Bank, how long did registering a new business in Suriname take on average?

About 99 weeks. Bureaucracy, a bloated civil service and poor tax collection have long dogged the economy.

Of 1,378 species catalogued in the Upper Palumeu watershed in 2013, how many were possibly new to science?

They included six frogs, a snake and eleven fish. Conservation International calls the country's fresh water vital to the region.

The Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge, completed in 2000, replaced a ferry across which river?

It links Paramaribo to Commewijne district and is 1,504 metres long. The other rivers form the borders with French Guiana and Guyana.

The name Suriname is thought to derive from which people?

The '-ame' ending may come from a Lokono word for river mouth, as in the Coppename River.

Suriname belongs to which regional bloc, unusually for a South American state?

It is also considered part of the Caribbean and the West Indies, and belongs to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Who was Suriname's first president after independence, having previously served as governor?

Henck Arron, leader of the National Party of Suriname, became prime minister; nearly a third of the population had emigrated to the Netherlands in the run-up.