Republiek Suriname

Political Status: Former Netherlands dependency; granted internal autonomy on December 29, 1954, and complete independence on November 25, 1975; constitution of November 21, 1975, suspended on August 15, 1980, following military coup of February 25; present constitution approved by referendum of September 30, 1987.

Area: 63,036 sq. mi. (163,265 sq. km).

Population: 605,000 (2020E—World Bank); 603,569 (2020E—U.S. Census).

Major Urban Center (2014E—UN): PARAMARIBO (234,000).

Official Language: Linguistically, Suriname is exceptionally diverse. The official language is Dutch, but English, Hindi, Javanese, Chinese, and Sranan Tongo (Taki-Taki), a Creole lingua franca, are widely spoken, while Spanish has been adopted as a working language to facilitate communication with Latin American neighbors. In the interior, a number of indigenous languages are also spoken.

Monetary Unit: Surinamese Dollar (market rate September 30, ...