Natural hazards:
NA
Environment - current issues: deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of inland waterways by small-scale mining activities
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
smallest independent country on South American continent; mostly
tropical rain forest; great diversity of flora and fauna that, for
the most part, is increasingly threatened by new development;
relatively small population, mostly along the coast
People Suriname
Population:
438,144 (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 29.6% (male 66,537/female 63,182)
15-64 years: 64.2% (male 144,285/female 136,942)
65 years and over: 6.2% (male 12,092/female 15,106) (2005 est.)
Median age:
total: 26.13 years
male: 25.72 years
female: 26.58 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.25% (2005 est.)
Birth rate:
18.39 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)