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People
Cultural Demography
Almost 90 percent of Guyana's inhabitants live on the narrow coastal plain, where population density is more than 115 people per square kilometer, or 380 per square mile. The population density for Guyana as a whole, however, is low, at less than four people per square kilometer. Indeed, the total population is less than 900,000.
Guyana is the third-smallest country in South America after Suriname and Uruguay, and substantial portions of its western and eastern territories are claimed by Venezuela and Suriname respectively.
Guyana's population is made up of five main ethnic groups: East Indian, African, Indigenous Amerindians, Chinese and European, as well as a substantial mixed population. East Indians form the majority of the population, with Africans being the next largest ethnic group.
Over 50 percent of the population practices Christianity, and Hindus (35 percent) and Muslims (10 percent) are also well-represented.
The country's official language is English, but local dialects also prevail.
Health and Welfare
In terms of health and welfare, Guyana's infant mortality rate is 31.35 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy at birth is 66 years of age for the total population, according to recent estimates. The total fertility rate is 2.04 children born per woman.
Although the government has provided free education from nursery school to university 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 textbooks and workbooks, the number of teachers has declined and, for the first time, fees are being charged at the university level for some courses of study. Nevertheless, the literacy rate remains very high at 98.8 percent.
Note that over six percent of GDP is spent in this country on health expenditures; as well, over six percent of GDP is spent on eucation.
Human Development
Another quality-of-life indicator that reflects on Guyana is the Human Development Index (HDI), compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Guayana in the medium human development category, at 104th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at CountryWatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
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