Geography
Did you know that Suriname is the smallest independent country in South America, covering about 165,940 square kilometres, yet it is larger than many European states and home to only around 630,000 people?
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Geography, nature
Did you know that Suriname is about 90 percent forested, a share Wikipedia describes as among the highest of any nation, so most of its small population lives on the narrow coastal plain around Paramaribo?
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Language
Did you know that Suriname is the only independent state outside Europe where Dutch is the official and prevailing language, with Sranan Tongo serving as the everyday lingua franca?
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Language, politics
Did you know that Suriname joined the Dutch Language Union as an associate member in 2004, with its accession agreement signed in 2003 and entering into force in 2005, making it the union's only non-European member?
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Language
Did you know that Sranan Tongo, the English-based creole of Suriname, took vocabulary from English, Portuguese and Dutch plus African languages such as Gbe, Kikongo and Akan, and about 520,000 people speak it as a first language?
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Culture, heritage
Did you know that the historic inner city of Paramaribo became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002 because of its Dutch colonial architecture, with much of it built of wood beside the Suriname River?
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Religion, culture
Did you know that in Paramaribo the Keizerstraat Mosque stands right next to the Neveh Shalom Synagogue, one of the oldest synagogues in the Americas, a pairing often cited as a symbol of Suriname's religious tolerance?
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Culture, architecture
Did you know that the Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral in Paramaribo is a wooden Roman Catholic church, begun in 1883 and consecrated in 1885, and it is described as the largest wooden structure in the Western Hemisphere?
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Geography, nature
Did you know that the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, created in 1998 and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, protects roughly 16,000 square kilometres of primary tropical forest with over 5,000 identified plant species?
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Geography
Did you know that Suriname's highest peak, Julianatop, rises about 1,280 metres in the Wilhelmina Mountains inside the Central Suriname Nature Reserve and is named after Juliana of the Netherlands?
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Geography, nature
Did you know that the Voltzberg, a 245 metre granite dome in the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, has a research station at its foot and is one of the best known landmarks of Suriname's rainforest?
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Geography, economy
Did you know that the Brokopondo Reservoir, created behind the Afobaka Dam in the 1960s, covers about 1,560 square kilometres, displaced roughly 5,000 residents and was built mainly to power aluminium production?
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Economy
Did you know that Suriname's bauxite era began in 1916 when Alcoa started mining, and it ended in November 2015 when the successor company Suralco stopped bauxite mining completely?
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Economy
Did you know that gold now provides the largest share of Suriname's export earnings, estimated at 60 to 80 percent, while offshore oil, first found in 2020, is expected to start flowing from Block 58 around 2028?
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History, colonial
Did you know that the Dutch gained Suriname in the Treaty of Breda, signed on 31 July 1667, while the English kept New Netherland, the territory that later became New York?
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History, colonial
Did you know that Suriname was once the English colony of Willoughbyland, founded in 1650 by Lord Francis Willoughby, and the Dutch fleet under Abraham Crijnssen captured its main fort in February 1667, renaming it Fort Zeelandia?
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History, heritage
Did you know that Fort Zeelandia in Paramaribo began as a French wooden fort in 1640, became Fort Willoughby under the English, and now houses the Surinamese Museum despite its dark role in the 1982 December murders?
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History, colonial
Did you know that the Society of Suriname, founded in 1683 by the city of Amsterdam, the Dutch West India Company and the Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck family, ran the colony until 1795?
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History, colonial
Did you know that Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, first governor under the Society of Suriname, made peace with Amerindian tribes in 1686 and was murdered by mutinous soldiers on 19 July 1688?
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Heritage, religion
Did you know that Jodensavanne, founded by Sephardic Jewish settlers in the 17th century, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in September 2023 together with the Cassipora Creek Cemetery, and only synagogue ruins and cemeteries remain?
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Religion, history
Did you know that the Jewish community at Jodensavanne built its Beracha ve Shalom synagogue in wood between 1665 and 1671, replaced it with brick in 1685, and the settlement was destroyed by fire during a slave revolt in 1832?
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History, slavery
Did you know that by 1713 about 13,000 enslaved Africans worked on roughly 200 plantations in Suriname, up from about 3,000 in 1663, when the colony had only around 50 plantations?
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Society, history
Did you know that Suriname's Maroons descend from Africans who escaped plantations into the interior, and the six main groups are the Aluku, Kwinti, Matawai, Ndyuka, Paamaka and Saamaka, together 21.7 percent of the 2012 population?
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History, maroons
Did you know that the Ndyuka Maroons signed a treaty with Dutch colonial authorities on 10 October 1760, recognising their territorial autonomy and trade, and the Saramaka secured a similar treaty in 1762?
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Law, maroons
Did you know that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled for the Saramaka people against Suriname in November 2007, granting collective rights to traditional lands, including a say over timber and gold extraction?
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History, culture
Did you know that John Gabriel Stedman's account of fighting the Maroons in Suriname from 1773 to 1777, published in 1796, was illustrated with sixteen engravings by William Blake?
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History, slavery
Did you know that Dutch slavery in Suriname was abolished in 1863 but followed by ten years of compulsory plantation work, and owners received 300 guilders for each enslaved person freed?
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Culture, slavery
Did you know that Keti Koti, Sranan Tongo for the chain is cut, marks the abolition of slavery on 1 July, and it became an official public holiday in Suriname in 1955?
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History, slavery
Did you know that King Willem-Alexander apologised for the Netherlands' role in slavery on 1 July 2023, during a Keti Koti commemoration in Amsterdam, 160 years after abolition in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean?
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Society, migration
Did you know that the Lalla Rookh reached Paramaribo on 5 June 1873 carrying 399 Indian indentured labourers, the first of the Hindustani migrants who now form Suriname's largest ethnic group at 27.4 percent?
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Society, migration
Did you know that the first Javanese contract workers reached Paramaribo on 9 August 1890, and 32,956 Javanese migrants came to Suriname before immigration ended in December 1939?
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Society, migration
Did you know that the first Chinese workers came to Suriname in 1853, when 18 were recruited for a plantation in Saramacca, and most early settlers were Hakka from Guangdong?
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Society, religion
Did you know that Suriname's people include Hindustani, Creole, Javanese, Maroon, Indigenous and Chinese communities, with 2012 religious shares of about 48 percent Christian, 22 percent Hindu and 14 percent Muslim?
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Religion, culture
Did you know that Winti, the Afro-Surinamese religion blending Akan, Fon and Kongo beliefs, was forbidden by law from 1874 until 1971, and Suriname recognised Winti marriage officials in 2011?
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Culture, religion
Did you know that Holi is a national holiday in Suriname, celebrated as Phagwa to mark the arrival of spring, when people in old white clothes throw coloured powder at each other?
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Culture, music
Did you know that kaseko, Suriname's brass band and drum music, grew out of kawina street music in Paramaribo in the early 1900s, and its huge bass drum is called the skratji?
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Culture, history
Did you know that Anton de Kom, born in Paramaribo in 1898, wrote the anti-colonial classic Wij slaven van Suriname in 1934, joined the Dutch resistance and died in Germany of tuberculosis on 24 April 1945?
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History, war
Did you know that United States troops arrived in Suriname in November 1941 under an agreement with the Dutch government in exile to protect the bauxite mines, and Zanderij airfield became a Lend-Lease transport base?
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History, migration
Did you know that Suriname became independent from the Netherlands on 25 November 1975, and between a third and a half of its population is estimated to have emigrated, helping make the Netherlands home to roughly 365,000 people of Surinamese descent?
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History, politics
Did you know that between 7 and 9 December 1982, fifteen prominent critics of Desi Bouterse's military government were shot at Fort Zeelandia, and Bouterse was sentenced to 20 years for it in November 2019?
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History, maroons
Did you know that soldiers killed at least 39 villagers, mostly women and children, in the Maroon village of Moiwana on 29 November 1986 during the interior war, a case later taken to the Inter-American Court?
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Politics, history
Did you know that Desi Bouterse, who led the 1980 sergeants' coup and later served as elected president from 2010 to 2020, died on 23 December 2024 while a fugitive from his sentence?
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Politics
Did you know that Jennifer Geerlings-Simons was elected Suriname's first female president by parliament on 6 July 2025 and took office on 16 July 2025, after the May 2025 elections?
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Geography, law
Did you know that an arbitration tribunal in September 2007 ruled on part of the maritime boundary between Suriname and Guyana, while the land border along the Corantijn River remains disputed?
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