Demographics of Guyana

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This article is about the demographic features of Guyana, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Guyana's population (Guyanese people) is made up of five main ethnic groups: Amerindians, Africans, Indians, Europeans, and Chinese. Ninety percent of the inhabitants live on the narrow coastal plain, where population density is more than 115 inhabitants per square kilometre (300 /sq mi). The population density for Guyana as a whole is low: less than four inhabitants per square kilometre (10.4 /sq mi).

Although the government has provided free education from nursery school to the university level 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 text and exercise books, the number of teachers has declined, and fees are being charged at the university level for some courses of study for the first time.

Guyana continues to be influenced by British culture as well distantly with the cultures of the United States, Europe, Africa, the Islamic world, East and South Asian countries, and Latin America, esp. with neighboring countries of Venezuela and Brazil. It is one of three countries and two territories to form The Guianas, such as Suriname and the island of Trinidad and Tobago; and territories like the French Guiana and parts of neighboring countries named for Guayana (Venezuela) and Amapa of Brazil.

There is an organization dedicated to the integration of Guyana with the United States, GuyanaUSA. Their claim is based on the idea that Guyana has strong connections with the United States in terms of people (100,000 people have joint Guyanese American citizenship and 350,000 Guyanese live in the U.S., half as many as remain in Guyana).[citation needed]

Contents

Population [edit]

According to the 2010 revison of the World Population Prospects the total population was 754 000 in 2010, compared to only 407 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 33.6%, 62.1% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 4.3% was 65 years or older .[1]

Total population
(x 1000)
Proportion
aged 0–14
(%)
Proportion
aged 15–64
(%)
Proportion
aged 65+
(%)
1950 407 39.9 56.0 4.1
1955 483 43.6 52.8 3.6
1960 560 46.3 50.4 3.3
1965 640 47.7 49.0 3.4
1970 721 48.7 47.9 3.4
1975 749 45.5 50.9 3.6
1980 777 42.5 53.7 3.8
1985 752 38.6 57.0 4.4
1990 725 34.4 60.6 5.0
1995 728 34.6 60.4 5.0
2000 733 35.5 60.0 4.5
2005 746 36.9 59.3 3.8
2010 754 33.6 62.1 4.3

Vital statistics [edit]

The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates of vital statistics of Guyana. [1]

Period Live births
per year
Deaths
per year
Natural change
per year
CBR* CDR* NC* TFR* IMR* Life expectancy
total
Life expectancy
males
Life expectancy
females
1950-1955 20 000 8 000 12 000 49.4 18.1 31.4 6.68 118 49.2 46.5 52.0
1955-1960 23 000 8 000 15 000 47.5 15.8 31.7 6.77 107 51.7 49.4 54.1
1960-1965 25 000 8 000 17 000 41.5 13.6 27.9 6.15 98 53.7 51.8 55.6
1965-1970 27 000 8 000 19 000 40.0 12.5 27.5 6.11 92 55.1 53.8 56.4
1970-1975 25 000 7 000 18 000 34.1 11.0 23.2 4.90 83 57.2 55.9 58.6
1975-1980 24 000 7 000 17 000 31.1 10.0 21.0 3.94 77 58.8 57.4 60.3
1980-1985 23 000 7 000 16 000 28.7 9.6 19.1 3.26 73 60.0 57.9 62.5
1985-1990 19 000 7 000 12 000 26.4 9.8 16.6 2.70 68 60.6 57.9 63.8
1990-1995 19 000 7 000 12 000 23.5 9.8 13.7 2.55 63 61.4 58.5 64.9
1995-2000 18 000 7 000 11 000 22.0 8.9 13.0 2.50 56 63.1 60.1 66.6
2000-2005 16 000 7 000 9 000 20.1 7.6 12.5 2.43 49 65.7 62.7 69.1
2005-2010 14 000 6 000 8 000 18.8 5.9 12.9 2.33 42 68.7 65.5 71.9
* CBR = crude birth rate (per 1000); CDR = crude death rate (per 1000); NC = natural change (per 1000); IMR = infant mortality rate per 1000 births; TFR = total fertility rate (number of children per woman)

Ethnic groups [edit]

East Indian 43.5%, Black African 30.2%, mixed heritage ( part African) 16.7%, Amerindian 9.2%, other 0.46% and an estimated 100,000 United States/American expatriates (including a large number of returning Guyanese with U.S. citizenship).[2]

Religion [edit]

Hindu 28.4%, Pentecostal 16.9%, Roman Catholic 8.1%, Muslim 7.2%, Anglican 6.9%,
Seventh Day Adventist 5%, Other Christian denominations 20.5%, no religion 4.3%, Rastafarian 0.5%, Bahá'í 0.1%, other religions 2.2% and a small Jewish community.[3]

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics [edit]

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Population statistics [edit]

Population: 748,486
Note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0–14 years: 35.6% (male 135,629; female 131,518; total 267,147)
15–64 years: 60.2% (male 226,058; female 226,551; total 452,609)
65 years and over: 4.2% (male 14,347; female 17,120; total 31,467) (2002 census)[4][5]

Health Data [edit]

Population growth rate: 0.234% (2007 est.)

Net migration rate: -7.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Sex ratio:
At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
Total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Language and Literacy [edit]

Languages:

English (official), Guyanese Creole, Amerindian (Cariban) languages, a smaller number speak Hindi[citation needed], Chinese languages and a Portuguese-speaking community.

Literacy:
Definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
Total population: 97.1%
Male: 98.6%
Female: 96.5% (1995 est.)

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ a b Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision
  2. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (pp. 27-28)
  3. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (pp. 32-34)
  4. ^ Guyana Census 2002, population composition, Ch. 2 (p. 44)
  5. ^ Total population 751,223, where 15-64 years is 452,609/751,223 ~= 60.2%.

External links [edit]

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.