¿Por qué (casi) nadie vive en Surinam?

It is one of the most enigmatic and forgotten countries in South America. But, above all, one of the most depopulated. We invite you to explore Suriname and learn why so few people live there.

We propose an experiment: ask the next person you meet to name a country in South America. How many chances are there that someone will respond Suriname? Surely, very few.

The thing is that this country and Guyana are the only two that are South American but not Latin, since they were colonies of Great Britain and the Netherlands, respectively, and sometimes they seem somewhat disconnected from their region. Located in northern South America, Suriname also borders Brazil in the south and France in the east. It is part of the Guyana region, which historically was known by the origin of its colonization: Spanish, British, Dutch, French and Portuguese.

With 163,000 square kilometers, it is the smallest country in South America, just below Uruguay. But worldwide it is in 90th place out of 195. That is, it is in the middle of the table, so we can say that it is not an insignificant country due to its size.

In fact, it is larger than each of the seven countries in Central America. However, only 630,000 people live in Suriname, making it 165th among all nation states. It has fewer inhabitants than little Luxembourg or Comoros.

This population in that territory gives us a very low population density, of only 3. 8 people per square kilometer. Suriname only surpasses three countries on that list: Namibia, which is home to a good part of the Kalahari Desert; Australia, which has its population highly concentrated on the coasts; and Mongolia, which has 45% of its inhabitants in Ulaanbaatar, the coldest and most polluted capital on the planet.

To make matters worse, the situation is not homogeneous at all. About 400,000 people live in Paramaribo, the capital, and the urban area that surrounds it. That is, 63% of the total.

Much of the rest live in other cities that are also near the coast. If we look at the ten districts of the country, the situation can reach another level. Let's look at Sipaliwini, which is by far the largest of all.

In fact, it occupies 80% of the country. But only about 37,000 people live in that enormous territory. That is, it has a surface area similar to that of Greece or Nicaragua, but its entire population could fit into half a football stadium.

The population density of Sipaliwini is 0. 28 people per square kilometer. Or, what is the same, every 1000 hectares average only 35 inhabitants.

If the entire Earth had a similar density, the world population would only reach 4. 2 million inhabitants, as it did about 10,000 years ago. It is as if, from one moment to the next, all the emerged lands were inhabited only by the equivalent of the population of Panama.

Sipaliwini, unlike the other nine districts, does not even have a capital, but is administered directly from Paramaribo. It is an almost virgin land, full of jungle forests that make human settlement very complicated. In fact, Suriname is the country with the largest forest area in the world, since it exceeds 95% of the national territory.

In the north of the country, however, there are sections of fertile plains, which coincide with the most populated areas. With the impossibility of intensive agriculture, the interior of Suriname has seen the development of a mining industry. In fact, currently, gold represents almost 70% of the country's exports.

The extraction of bauxite, a rock used to make aluminum, is also very important. The point is that, in addition to not having fertile lands that would allow a large population to settle, Suriname has had various problems throughout its history that cause it to have this demographic reality today. In principle, it is difficult to refer to this country without referring to the Netherlands, the colonizing power that maintained its dominance until independence, only in 1975.

During different stages, the Dutch sent slaves and then labor economic to work on Surinamese plantations, especially sugar cane. In this way, not only Africans arrived, but also Indians, Javanese and Chinese. This means that until today there are many ethnic groups with different cultures and religions, which in some cases has generated a weak national identity.

The colonial period of Suriname, which was also under British and American rule at times, has not been easy. But emancipation did not mean an immediate takeoff either. In principle, it had a direct demographic implication: at the time of independence, 100,000 inhabitants chose to use their Dutch passport and settled in the Netherlands.

These people preferred to go to the metropolis in search of a certain predictability instead of staying to build a new nation, with all the uncertainty that could generate. From there, the country went down a turbulent path: coups d'état, corruption and military governments. None of this collaborated to achieve sovereign development, obtain economic benefits for the entire population or generate industries.

Ultimately, to improve people's quality of life. However, this appears to have changed in the last 30 years. Since then, a marked growth in the number of inhabitants has been observed.

There were changes in public health that generated greater life expectancy. Likewise, there remains much to do. In addition to the legal mining industry, there are many illegal activities that advance with uncontrolled deforestation.

The infrastructure is also far behind. It is a country connected by river, but has very few roads. Let's think that there is no way to leave the country by land.

It has no roads or bridges connecting it with Guyana, Brazil or French Guiana. We can only do it by ferry or by air. To make matters worse, it maintains historical disputes with its neighbors to the east and west that date back to colonial times.

Guyana claims the Tigri region, which is no less than 15,000 square kilometers. With France it has a minor but also relevant dispute, since it proposes that the limit should run through another river. Yes, in both cases they are jungle and sparsely inhabited territories that would swell the low Surinamese population density.

In short, this country seems like an infiltrator within South America. It is a country without Latin heritage and where people drive on the left. It maintains greater ties with the Caribbean countries than with its South American neighbors.

This can be seen in international organizations: it is part of Caricom, the Caribbean economic integration organization. It can also be seen in sports: its soccer team participates in Concacaf and not Conmebol, where the South American teams are. The difference in level between Suriname and the Conmebol teams has historically been very great.

Especially since many Surinamese have chosen to play for the Netherlands national team. Some of the most relevant cases are Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Aron Winter. Yes, all of them were born in Paramaribo, but they have played World Cups and European Championships with the orange shirt.

But it is not the only thing that Suriname contributed to the Netherlands team: these five players also stood out with that team and are the sons of Surinamese who emigrated to the former metropolis. But we are not going to name them, but rather we invite you to leave who they are in the comments. We also invite you to support us so we can continue growing.

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