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59-477: The Demographics of French Guiana are characterized by a young population with 44% below the age of 20 as of 2017. The total population stood at 268,700 as of 1 January 2017. The demographic profile is a reflection of the territory's high fertility rates. Regarding nationality, as of 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% were of foreign nationality with significant communities from Suriname, Haiti, and Brazil among others. According to INSEE

118-718: A French department on 19 March 1946. Following the French withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1950s and subsequent war between the Viet Cong and the United States, France helped resettle several hundred Hmong refugees from Laos to French Guiana during the 1970s and 80s, who were fleeing displacement after the communist takeover of Laos by Pathet Lao in 1975. In the late 1980s, more than 10,000 Surinamese refugees, mostly Maroons , arrived in French Guiana, fleeing

177-572: A high level of biodiversity of both flora and fauna . This is due to the presence of old-growth forests (i.e., ancient/primary forests), which are biodiversity hotspots . The rainforests of French Guiana provide shelter for many species during dry periods and terrestrial glaciation. These forests are protected by a national park (the Guiana Amazonian Park ), seven additional nature reserves , and 17 protected sites. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and

236-570: A second referendum , transition to a " single territorial collectivity " under Article 73 of the Constitution was approved. On 20 March 2017, French Guianese workers began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure . 28 March 2017 was the day of the largest demonstration ever held in French Guiana. French Guiana has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak , with more than 1% of French Guianese testing positive by

295-528: A space-travel base in French Guiana. It was intended to replace the Sahara base in Algeria and stimulate economic growth in French Guiana. The department was considered suitable for the purpose because it is near the equator and has extensive access to the ocean as a buffer zone. The Guiana Space Centre , located a short distance along the coast from Kourou , has grown considerably since the initial launches of

354-475: Is chouval , similar to French's cheval ). Otherwise, it is replaced by 'k' when it stands for [k] (Standard French's comment (how) is written kouman ) and 's', when it stands for [s] . Silent 'h' is never written, unlike in Standard French, where it remains for etymological reasons. The diphthong 'OU' is replaced by 'w' when it stands for [w] . The diphthong 'OI' is replaced by 'we', but by 'o' in

413-522: Is French. Religion in French Guiana ( ARDA 2015) The dominant religion of French Guiana is Roman Catholicism; some of the Maroons and Amerindian people maintain their own religions, however large tribes like the Kalina , Ndyuka have been Christianized. French Guiana French Guiana is an overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in

472-619: Is compatible with requirements for environmental protection. The coastal environment along the RN1 has historically experienced the most changes, but development is occurring locally along the RN2 , and also in western French Guiana due to gold mining. 5,500 plant species have been recorded, including more than a thousand trees, along with 700 species of birds, 177 species of mammals, over 500 species of fish including 45% of which are endemic and 109 species of amphibians . French Guiana's high biodiversity

531-406: Is higher than in metropolitan France: At birth, life expectancy is 76.2 years for male children, and 82.8 for female (figures for 2011). Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition vary, a situation compounded by the large proportion of immigrants. Creoles, or Mulattoes (people of mixed African and French ancestry), are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to

590-526: Is hot and oppressively humid all year round. During most of the year, rainfall across the country is heavy due to the presence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and its powerful thunderstorm cells. In most parts of French Guiana, rainfall is always heavy especially from December to July – typically over 330 millimetres or 13 inches can be expected each month during this period throughout the department. Between August and November,

649-693: Is in charge of regional and departmental government. Its president is Gabriel Serville . Fully integrated in the French Republic since 1946, French Guiana is a part of the European Union, and its official currency is the euro . A large part of French Guiana's economy depends on jobs and businesses associated with the presence of the Guiana Space Centre , now the European Space Agency 's primary launch site near

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708-505: Is one of the largest worldwide for the leatherback turtle . French Guiana has some of the poorest soils in the world. The soil is low in nutrients (e.g., nitrogen , potassium ) and organic matter . Soil acidity is another cause of the poor soils, and it requires farmers to add lime to their fields. The soil characteristics have led to the use of slash and burn agriculture. The resulting ashes elevate soil pH (i.e., lower soil acidity), and contribute minerals and other nutrients to

767-691: Is rooted in colonial times, when five such colonies ( The Guianas ) had been named along the coast, subject to differing powers: namely (from west to east) Spanish Guiana (now Guayana Region in Venezuela), British Guiana (now Guyana ), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname ), French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (now Amapá in Brazil). French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as "the Guianas" and constitute one large landmass known as

826-485: Is similar to that of other regions with tropical rainforests, such as the Brazilian Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra . Environmental threats include habitat fragmentation from roads, which remains very limited compared to other forests of South America; immediate and deferred impacts of EDF 's Petit-Saut Dam ; gold mining ; poor control of hunting and poaching , facilitated by the creation of many tracks; and

885-565: Is the euro . The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for French Guiana is .gf , but .fr is generally used instead. In 2019, the GDP of French Guiana at market exchange rates was US$ 4.93 billion (€4.41 billion), ranking as the 2nd largest economy in the Guianas after Guyana (which discovered large oil fields in 2015 and 2018), and the 12th largest in South America. From

944-480: Is the longest land border that France shares with another country, as well as one of only two borders which France shares with non-European states, the other being the border with Suriname in the west. According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the name "Guyana" is an indigenous term meaning "land of many waters". The addition of the adjective "French" in most languages other than French

1003-415: The COVID-19 recession in metropolitan France (-7.9% in 2020). French Guiana is heavily dependent on mainland France for subsidies, trade, and goods. The main traditional industries are fishing (accounting for 5% of exports in 2012), gold mining (accounting for 32% of exports in 2012) and timber (accounting for 1% of exports in 2012). In addition, the Guiana Space Centre has played a significant role in

1062-630: The Chinese (about 3-4%, primarily from Zhejiang province in mainland China and Hong Kong) and Hmong from Laos (1-2%). There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Saint Lucia as well as Dominica . Other Asian groups include East Indians , Lebanese and Vietnamese . The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons (formerly called "Bush Negroes") who are from African descent, and Amerindians . The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along

1121-618: The EU covers 41% of French Guiana's territory. Since December 2015, both the region and department have been ruled by a single assembly within the framework of a single territorial collectivity , the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity. This assembly, the French Guiana Assembly , replaced the former regional and departmental council , which were dissolved. The French Guiana Assembly

1180-695: The European Union (EU) have recommended special efforts to protect these areas. Following the Grenelle Environment Round Table of 2007, the Grenelle Law II was proposed in 2009, under law number 2010–788. Article 49 of the law proposed the creation of a single organization responsible for environmental conservation in French Guiana. Article 64 proposes a "departmental plan of mining orientation" for French Guiana, which would promote mining (specifically of gold) that

1239-760: The French Revolution , when the National Convention voted to abolish the French slave trade and slavery in France's overseas colonies in February 1794, months after enslaved Haitians had started a slave rebellion in the colony of Saint-Domingue . However, the 1794 decree was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, while the colonies of Senegal , Mauritius , Réunion , Martinique and French India resisted

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1298-521: The GDP per capita of French Guiana at market exchange rates, not at PPP , was US$ 17,375 (€15,521), only 42.3% of metropolitan France 's average GDP per capita that year, and 50.3% of the metropolitan French regions outside the Paris Region . French Guiana was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, leading to a recession of -2.7% that year according to provisional estimates, moderate compared to

1357-525: The Guiana Shield . French Guiana was originally inhabited by indigenous people : Kalina , Lokono (part of the Arawak grouping), Galibi , Palikur , Teko , Wayampi and Wayana . The French attempted to create a colony there in the 16th century in conjunction with its settlement of some Caribbean islands, such as Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue . Prior to European colonization , the territory

1416-500: The Hmong communities settled in French Guiana in the 1970s, both destined to the local market. A thriving rice production, developed on polders near Mana from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, has almost completely disappeared since 2011 due to marine erosion and new EU plant health rules which forbid the use of many pesticides and fertilizers. Tourism, especially eco-tourism , is growing. Unemployment has been persistently high in

1475-792: The Kaliña ), Palikur , Wayampi and Wayana . The estimated population for the beginning of the 17th century was 30,000 people. Until the middle of the 20th century, there was a sharp decline in population to almost 1,200 people in 1961 which was mainly caused by European diseases. Improved health care managed to turn the tide. French and French Guianese Creole are the most widely spoken languages. There are also several native languages, including Arawakan ( Arawak and Palikúr ), Cariban ( Carib and Wayana ), and Tupi-Guarani ( Emerillon and Wayampi ) languages. Other languages spoken include Hakka Chinese and Javanese . The official language, like for all overseas departments and territories of France ,

1534-739: The Maroni River . The main Maroon groups are the Saramaka , Ndyuka (both of whom also live in Suriname ), and Boni ( Aluku ). The Maroons are the fastest growing ethnic group, and as of 2018 constitute about one-third of the total population with an estimated population of close to 100,000 people. The main Amerindian groups (estimated population about 10,000) are the Arawak , Carib , Teko (previously called Emerillon ), Galibi (now called

1593-520: The Portuguese Empire in 1809. It was returned to France with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814. Though Portugal returned the region to France, it kept a military presence until 1817. After French Guiana was established as a penal colony, officials sometimes used convicts to catch butterflies. The sentences of the convicts were often long, and the prospect of employment very weak, so

1652-614: The Surinamese Civil War . More recently, French Guiana has received large numbers of Brazilian and Haitian economic migrants . Illegal and ecologically destructive gold mining by Brazilian garimpeiros is a chronic issue in the remote interior rain forest of French Guiana. The region still faces such problems as illegal immigration, poorer infrastructure than mainland France, higher costs of living, higher levels of crime and more common social unrest. In 1964, French president Charles de Gaulle decided to construct

1711-675: The Véronique rockets. It is now part of the European space industry and has had commercial success with such launches as the Ariane 4 , Ariane 5 and Ariane flight VA256 which launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space. The Guianese General Council officially adopted a departmental flag in 2010. In a referendum that same year, French Guiana voted against becoming an autonomous overseas collectivity . In

1770-534: The arbitration of the Swiss government. The territory of Inini consisted of most of the interior of French Guiana when it was created in 1930. In 1936, Félix Éboué from Cayenne became the first black man to serve as governor in a French colony. During World War II and the fall of France to German forces, French Guiana became part of Vichy France . Guiana officially rallied to Free France on 16 March 1943. It abandoned its colony status and once again became

1829-534: The 1900s and 1910s, it suffered from a bad reputation due to its association with penal colonies and bad sanitary conditions ( yellow fever and malaria in particular). Population started to grow tremendously from the 1950s onwards with the improvement of sanitary conditions (yellow fever and malaria eradication campaigns started in 1949) and the establishment of the Guiana Space Centre in 1964. Population growth has been fueled both by high birth rates and large arrivals of immigrants (from metropolitan France , to man

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1888-572: The 1960s to the 2000s, French Guiana experienced strong economic growth, fueled by the development of France's Guiana Space Centre (established in French Guiana in 1964 as the independence of Algeria in 1962 led to the closure of France's space center in the Algerian Sahara) and by high population growth which stimulated domestic consumption. French Guiana's economy did not suffer from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 :

1947-527: The 2010s. French Guiana's population reached 295,385 in 2024 (Jan. estimate), more than 10 times the population it had in 1954. There are three metropolitan areas (as defined by INSEE ) in French Guiana. These are Cayenne , which covers 6 communes (Cayenne, Remire-Montjoly , Matoury , Macouria , Montsinéry-Tonnegrande , and Roura ), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni , made up of the namesake commune, and Kourou , which covers 2 communes (Kourou and Sinnamary ). The population of these three metropolitan areas at

2006-578: The 2021 census was the following: French Guianese Creole It should not be confused with the Guyanese Creole language , based on English, spoken in nearby Guyana . French Guianese Creole was a language spoken between slaves and settlers . But the conditions of French Guianese Creole's constitution were quite different from the Creole of the West Indies, on the one hand because of

2065-468: The GDP grew by an average of +3.4% per year in real terms from 2002 to 2012, slightly faster than the rapidly growing population, which allowed French Guiana to catch up marginally with the rest of France in terms of standards of living. The GDP per capita rose from 48.0% of metropolitan France 's level in 2000 to 48.5% of metropolitan France in 2012. Since 2013, however, French Guiana's economic growth has been uneven, and more subdued. From 2013 to 2019,

2124-516: The Guianas and the West Indies . Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south, French Guiana covers a total area of 84,000 km (32,000 sq mi) and a land area of 83,534 km (32,253 sq mi). As of January 2024, it is home to approximately 295,385 people. French Guiana is the second-largest region in France, being approximately one-seventh

2183-450: The United States in 1804, it developed Guiana as a penal colony , establishing a network of camps and penitentiaries along the coast where prisoners from metropolitan France were sentenced to forced labour . During operations as a penal colony beginning in the mid-19th century, the French government transported approximately 56,000 prisoners to Devil's Island . Fewer than 10% survived their sentence. Île du Diable (Devil's Island)

2242-406: The coast and along the Maroni River . Sugar and bananas were traditionally two of the main cash crops grown for export but have almost completely disappeared. Today they have been replaced by livestock raising (essentially beef cattle and pigs) in the coastal savannas between Cayenne and the second-largest town, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni , and market gardening (fruits and vegetables) developed by

2301-535: The coast: the three Salvation's Islands which include Devil's Island , and the isolated Îles du Connétable bird sanctuary further along the coast towards Brazil. The Petit-Saut Dam , a hydroelectric dam in the north of French Guiana forms an artificial lake and provides hydroelectricity . There are many rivers in French Guiana, including the Waki River . As of 2007 , the Amazonian forest , located in

2360-644: The conflicts between French, English, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish, and French dialects such as the Caen have greatly influenced French Guianese Creole, which has made it significantly different from the Creoles of Martinique, Haiti, St. Lucia and Guadeloupe. There are, therefore, in French Guianese Creole many words in common with the Creoles of the West Indies. However, a number of words differentiate them significantly. In addition, in French Guiana,

2419-415: The convicts caught butterflies to sell in the international market, both for scientific purposes as well as general collecting. A border dispute with Brazil arose in the late 19th century over a vast area of jungle, resulting in the short-lived, pro-French, independent state of Counani in the disputed territory. There was some fighting among settlers. The dispute was resolved largely in favour of Brazil by

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2478-723: The eastern half experiences a warm dry season with rainfall below 100 millimetres or 3.94 inches and average high temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) occurring in September and October, causing eastern French Guiana to be classified as a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen Am ); Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in the west has a tropical rainforest climate ( Af ). French Guiana is home to many different ecosystems : tropical rainforests , coastal mangroves , savannahs , inselbergs and many types of wetlands . It lies within three ecoregions: Guayanan Highlands moist forests , Guianan moist forests , and Guianan mangroves . French Guiana has

2537-431: The economy grew by an average of only +1.2% per year in real terms. French Guiana experienced a recession of -0.8% in 2014, and social unrest in 2017 led to almost no economic growth that year. Economic growth recovered at +3.0% in 2018, but was again almost null (+0.2%) in 2019. As a result, the GDP per capita has remained stagnant in nominal terms since 2013, and has declined relative to metropolitan France's. In 2019,

2596-878: The end of June 2020. French Guiana lies between latitudes 2° and 6° N, and longitudes 51° and 55° W. It consists of two main geographical regions: a coastal strip where the majority of the people live, and dense, near-inaccessible rainforest which gradually rises to the modest peaks of the Tumuc-Humac mountains along the Brazilian frontier. French Guiana's highest peak is Bellevue de l'Inini in Maripasoula (851 m, 2,792 ft). Other mountains include Mont Itoupé (826 m, 2,710 ft), Cottica Mountain (744 m, 2,441 ft), Pic Coudreau (711 m, 2,333 ft), and Kaw Mountain (337 m, 1,106 ft). Several small islands are found off

2655-465: The equator. As elsewhere in France, the official language is standard French, but each ethnic community has its own language, of which French Guianese Creole , a French-based creole language , is the most widely spoken. French Guiana is the only territory on the continental mainland of the Americas that is still under the sovereignty of a European state. The border between French Guiana and Brazil

2714-590: The exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally the Creole population is judged to be about 60 to 70% of the total population if Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) are included, and 30 to 50% without. Roughly 41,000 people or 14% of the population of French Guiana is of European ancestry. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch , British , Spanish and Portuguese ancestry. The main Asian communities are

2773-472: The imposition of these laws. Bill Marshall, Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Stirling , wrote of French Guiana's origins: The first French effort to colonize Guiana, in 1763, utterly failed, as settlers were subject to high mortality given the numerous tropical diseases and harsh climate: all but 2,000 of the initial 12,000 settlers died. After France ceded Louisiana to

2832-528: The introduction of all-terrain vehicles . Logging remains moderate due to the lack of roads, difficult climate, and difficult terrain. The Forest Code of French Guiana was modified by ordinance on 28 July 2005. Logging concessions or free transfers are sometimes granted by local authorities to persons traditionally deriving their livelihood from the forest. The beaches of the Amana Nature Reserve are an exceptional marine turtle nesting site. This

2891-598: The largest groups. Smaller groups included people with nationality of Guyana (1.7%), Colombia (1.0%), China (0.5%), the Dominican Republic (0.4%) and Peru (0.2%). The total fertility rate in French Guiana has remained high and is today considerably higher than in metropolitan France , and also higher than the average of the French overseas departments . It is largely responsible for the high population growth of French Guiana. The infant mortality in French Guiana

2950-456: The last few decades, standing between 17% and 24%. In recent years, the unemployment rate has declined from a peak of 23.0% in 2016 to 19.3% in 2019. French Guiana experienced a long period of demographic stagnation during the days of the Cayenne and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni penal colonies (19th century and first half of the 20th century), when, with the exception of a brief gold rush in

3009-462: The letter 'r' is mostly preserved in onset position, whereas in the West Indies the pronunciation of 'r' tends rather to approximate the semi-vowel /w/ . Possessive determiners are placed before the noun: French Guianese Creole is largely written using the French alphabet , with only a few exceptions. 'Q' and 'X' are replaced by 'k' and 'z' respectively. 'C' is not used apart from in the digraph, ch , where it stands for [ʃ] (the word for horse

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3068-520: The local economy since it was established in Kourou in 1964: it accounted directly and indirectly for 16% of French Guiana's GDP in 2002 (down from 26% in 1994, as the French Guianese economy is becoming increasingly diversified). The Guiana Space Centre employed 1,659 people in 2012. There is very little manufacturing. Agriculture is largely undeveloped and is mainly confined to the area near

3127-501: The most remote part of the department, is protected as the Guiana Amazonian Park , one of the ten national parks of France . The territory of the park covers some 33,900 km (13,090 sq mi) upon the communes of Camopi , Maripasoula , Papaïchton , Saint-Élie and Saül . French Guiana has an equatorial climate predominant. Located within six degrees of the Equator and rising only to modest elevations, French Guiana

3186-454: The population of French Guiana was 268,700 as of 1 January 2017. The population is very young: 44% are below the age of 20, while only 1.7% are 75 years or older. The age distribution is a reflection of the high fertility rates of French Guiana. On January 1, 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% had a foreign nationality. Of these, Surinamese (13.8% of the total population), Haitians (8.8%) and Brazilians (8.7%) were

3245-625: The public administrations and the space center, as well as from neighboring countries, in particular Suriname and Brazil ). Arrivals of Surinamese refugees reached record levels in the 1980s during the Surinamese Interior War , resulting in the highest population growth rate in French Guiana's history, recorded between the 1982 and 1990 censuses (+5.8% per year). In the 21st century, the birth rate has remained high, and new arrivals of migrants seeking asylum (in particular from Haiti ) have kept population growth above 2% per year in

3304-414: The size of Metropolitan France, and the largest outermost region within the European Union . It has a very low population density, with only 3.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (9.3/sq mi). About half of its residents live in its capital, Cayenne. Approximately 98.9% of French Guiana is covered by forests, much of it primeval rainforest . The Guiana Amazonian Park , the largest national park in

3363-455: The soil. Sites of Terra preta ( anthropogenic soils) have been discovered in French Guiana, particularly near the border with Brazil. Research is being actively pursued in multiple fields to determine how these enriched soils were historically created, and how this can be done in modern times. As a part of France, French Guiana is part of the European Union and the Eurozone ; its currency

3422-542: Was originally inhabited by Native Americans , most speaking the Arawak language , of the Arawakan language family. The people identified as Lokono . The first French establishment is recorded in 1503, but France did not establish a durable presence until colonists founded Cayenne in 1643. Guiana was developed as a slave society , where planters imported Africans as enslaved labourers on large sugar and other plantations. The system of slavery in French Guiana continued until

3481-408: Was the site of a small prison facility, part of a larger penal system by the same name, which consisted of prisons on three islands and three larger prisons on the mainland. This was operated from 1852 to 1953. In addition, in the late nineteenth century, France began requiring forced residencies by prisoners who survived their hard labour. A Portuguese-British naval squadron took French Guiana for

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