French Guiana

Name

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 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 west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as "the Guianas" and lie largely on the elevated landmass of the Guiana Shield.

History

Indigenous inhabitants and early French attempts at colonization

French Guiana was originally (and still is) inhabited by Indigenous people: Kalina or Galibi (speaking languages of the Cariban family), Lokono or Arawak (speaking languages of the Arawakan family), Palikur (Arawakan), Teko or Emerillon (Tupian), Wayampi (Tupian), and Wayana (Cariban). The French attempted to create a colony in the region in the 16th century in conjunction with its settlement of some Caribbean islands, such as Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue. The first French establishment is recorded in 1503, but France did not establish a durable presence until colonists founded Cayenne in 1643.

Slavery and abolition

French Guiana was developed as a slave society, where planters trafficked Africans as enslaved labourers on large sugar and other plantations. The system of slavery in French Guiana continued until 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 the imposition of these laws.

Early colonial failures

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, failed utterly when tropical diseases and climate killed all but 2,000 of the initial 12,000 settlers ... During its existence, France transported approximately 56,000 prisoners to Devil's Island. Fewer than 10 percent survived their sentence."

Île du Diable (Devil's Island) 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 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 the convicts caught butterflies to sell in the international market, for both scientific purposes and general collecting.

Shifting sovereignty and border disputes

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 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 a French department on 19 March 1946 by the Law on Departmentalization.

Post World Wars

Following the French withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1950s after the First Indochina War, and the subsequent Vietnam War, 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 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 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 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.

In 1996, high school students started an independence movement. In 1997, twelve independence leaders were deported to Guadeloupe, including Jean-Victor Castor, who was elected to the French National Assembly in 2022.

The Guianese General Council officially adopted a departmental flag in 2010. In a referendum that same year, almost 70% French Guiana voters voted against becoming an autonomous overseas collectivity. In a second referendum, transition to a "single territorial collectivity" under Article 73 of the Constitution was approved. Discussions continue concerning greater autonomy called "sui generis", similar to that of Corsica, within France.

Geography

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 that 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 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 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 km2 (13,090 sq mi) upon the communes of Camopi, Maripasoula, Papaïchton, Saint-Élie and Saül.

Climate

French Guiana has an equatorial climate predominant. Located within six degrees of the Equator and rising only to modest elevations, French Guiana experiences consistently high temperatures and high humidity in all seasons. 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, 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).

Environment

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 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 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 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 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 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.

Agriculture

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 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.

Government and politics

French Guiana, as part of France, forms part of the European Union – the largest landmass for an area outside of Europe (since Greenland left the European Community in 1985), with one of the longest EU external boundaries. It is one of only three European Union territories outside Europe that is not an island (the others being the Spanish Autonomous Cities in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla). French Guiana's inhabitants are French citizens with full political and legal rights. As an integral part of France, its head of state is the president of the French Republic, and its head of government is the prime minister of France. The French government and its agencies have responsibility for a wide range of issues that are reserved to the national executive power, such as defense and external relations.

The president of France appoints a prefect (resident at the prefecture building in Cayenne) as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. There is one elected, local executive body, the Assemblée de Guyane.

French Guiana sends two deputies to the French National Assembly, one representing the commune (municipality) of Cayenne and the commune of Macouria, and the other representing the rest of French Guiana. This latter constituency is the largest in the French Republic by land area. French Guiana also sends two senators to the French Senate. The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth in 2020.

The Guianese Socialist Party dominated politics in French Guiana until 2010.

A chronic issue affecting French Guiana is the influx of illegal immigrants and clandestine gold prospectors from Brazil and Suriname. The border between the department and Suriname, the Maroni River, flows through rain forest and is difficult for the Gendarmerie and the French Foreign Legion to patrol. There have been several phases launched by the French government to combat illegal gold mining in French Guiana, beginning with Operation Anaconda beginning in 2003, followed by Operation Harpie in 2008 and 2009 and Operation Harpie Reinforce in 2010. Colonel François Müller, the commander of French Guiana's gendarmes, believes these operations have been successful. However, after each operation ends, Brazilian miners, garimpeiros, return. Soon after Operation Harpie Reinforce began, an altercation took place between French authorities and Brazilian miners. On 12 March 2010 a team of French soldiers and border police were attacked while returning from a successful operation, during which "the soldiers had arrested 15 miners, confiscated three boats, and seized 617 grams of gold... currently worth about $22,317". Garimpeiros returned to retrieve their lost loot and colleagues. The soldiers fired warning shots and rubber "flash balls", but the miners managed to retake one of their boats and about 500 grams of gold. "The violent reaction by the garimpeiros can be explained by the exceptional take of 617 grams of gold, about 20 percent of the quantity seized in 2009 during the battle against illegal mining", said Phillipe Duporge, the director of French Guiana's border police, at a press conference the next day.

Administrative divisions

French Guiana is divided into 3 arrondissements and 22 communes:

About a tenth of the Maripasoula commune is claimed by Suriname. A bilateral commission has been set up to resolve the dispute. Suriname contends that the boundary follows the Marowini River to the east, while France asserts that the border follows the Litani River and Coulé-Coulé Creek to the west.

Military

French military forces in Guiana number around 2,000 personnel and include the following:

The 9th Marine Infantry Regiment (9e RIMa) in Cayenne, the Madeleine.

The 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) in Kourou.

The RSMAG Regiment (Adapted Military Service) of French Guiana, located in Saint-Jean-du-Maroni, with a detachment in Cayenne.

Various detachments:

68 Air Transport Squadron, which includes: five Puma helicopters, four Fennec helicopters and three Casa CN235 aircraft

A platoon of the French Navy, based at the naval base of Dégrad des Cannes and operating two Confiance-class patrol vessels: La Confiance and La Résolue, as well as one Net Retrieval Boat (ERF – La Caouanne). One EDA-S landing craft (Anne-Marie II) is also deployed in the territory. The landing craft supports coastal and riverine operations in the territory.

A detachment of the Paris Fire Brigade in Kourou, ensuring the protection of the Guiana Space Centre.

Police and security forces

Elements of the National Gendarmerie (some 840 personnel) and the national police are deployed in French Guiana and are divided into 16 "brigades". These serve Cayenne, Remire-Montjoly, Cacao, Régina, Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock, Camopi, Macouria, Kourou, Sinnamary, Iracoubo, Mana, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Apatou, Grand-Santi, Papaïchton, Maripasoula and Matoury. The National Gendarmerie include five mobile gendarmerie squadrons.

The Maritime Gendarmerie operates the patrol boats Charente and Organabo in the territory, Charente having been deployed to the territory in 2022 to replace the previous boat Mahury, which was no longer deemed serviceable.

Economy

As a part of France, French Guiana is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; its currency 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 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 that stimulated domestic consumption. French Guiana's economy did not suffer from the 2008 financial crisis: 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, 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, 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 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 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.

Transport

The transportation system in French Guiana is deficient compared to Metropolitan France, being concentrated in the coastal zone of the territory, while the inland municipalities are poorly connected and often difficult to access.

French Guiana has about 2,200 km of roads, which are divided into:

National roads (440 km), divided into N1, N2, N3 and N4 (the last two downgraded to departmental roads during Raffarin's tenure), which connect the main coastal towns, forming a corridor that crosses the coastal strip from the border with Suriname to that of Brazil: N1, completed in the 1990s, links Cayenne to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, crossing the municipalities of Macouria, Kourou, Sinnamary (the stretch of road between Kourou and Sinnamary is locally called Route de l'espace, "Space Road") and Iracoubo. N2 runs between Cayenne and Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock, where it continues on BR-156 across the bridge over the Oyapock. Today, all rivers are crossed by road bridges, some of them quite long (e.g. the bridge over the Cayenne River is 1225 m long), whereas until 2004 (the year of completion and inauguration of the Approuague bridge) some rivers were still crossed by barges. Transport on national roads is restricted during the rainy season (from 48 to a maximum of 32 tons), while the maximum speed (monitored by the National Gendarmerie posts at Régina and Iracoubo, which are also in charge of controlling the possible flow of illegal traffic and irregular immigrants) is 90 km/h;

Departmental roads (408 km), subdivided into urban and rural departmental roads (rural roads), which serve the coastal Villages, 90% of which have no street lighting;

Communal roads or forest tracks (1311 km), most of which are closed to ordinary traffic and reserved for authorized personnel (employees of authorized mining or logging companies, forest rangers): the longest tracks are the Bélizon track in the commune of Saül (Guiana) (150 km), the Saint-Élie-diga track in Petit-Saut (26 km), the Coralie track (the oldest in the department, created to reach the Boulanger mine) and the Maripasoula-Papaïchton track. The communal roads are not usually paved and often go into the forest from the departmental roads.

Despite the existence of numerous projects to upgrade and asphalt roads (such as the Bélizon road or the Apatou-Maripasoula-Saül axis), which are often opposed by environmental movements because of environmental fragmentation and problems for Amerindian and Maroon communities, several French Guiana municipalities (Ouanary, Camopi, Saül, Saint-Élie, Grand-Santi, Papaïchton, Maripasoula, Apatou) still do not have road access.

Demographics

Historical population

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 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 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, and more recently from Syria and Afghanistan) kept population growth above 2% per year until the middle of the 2010s. Since the middle of the 2010s, however, population growth has slowed markedly, due to lower economic growth and social unrest, in particular the social unrest in 2017, which led to a recession in 2018, and then the effects of the COVID-19 recession, which have all pushed many young people to leave to Metropolitan France. In Jan. 2026, INSEE estimate French Guiana's population reached 298,554, more than 10 times the population in 1954, but far short of the population forecasts that were published in the 2010s.

Half of French Guiana's 300,000 residents are under the age of 25, a result of both a high birth rate and significant emigration. A 2021 report by the French statistics agency Insee found that 37% of individuals aged 21 to 29 leave the region to pursue education or employment opportunities abroad. At the same time, around one-third of young people between 15 and 29 are not working or in school, especially in remote areas with poor road access.

The population of French Guiana, currently around 300,000 people, is projected to grow quickly due to a combination of the highest fertility rate in Latin America (27.3 births per 1,000 people and an average of 3.63 children per woman in 2019) and steady immigration, which offsets emigration.

Major metropolitan areas and settlements

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 the 2023 census was the following:

Beyond these three metropolitan areas, the most populated communes (municipalities), which are not populated enough to form a metropolitan area, were the following at the 2023 census:

Ethnic groups

French Guiana's population, most of whom live along the coast, is substantially ethnically diverse. At the 2022 census, 55.4% of the inhabitants of French Guiana were born in French Guiana, 8.2% were born in Metropolitan France, 2.7% were born in the French Caribbean departments and collectivities (Guadeloupe and Martinique etc.), and 33.4% were born in foreign countries (primarily Suriname, Brazil, and Haiti).

Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition are difficult to produce due to the presence of a large proportion of immigrants. People of African descent are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally, the Creole population is judged to be about 60–70% of the total population if Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) are included, and 30–50% otherwise. There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Saint Lucia.

Approximately 53,900 people or 18.2% of the population is of European ancestry. The vast majority of these are of French ancestry, though there are also people of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry.

The main Asian communities are the Chinese (about 3–4%, primarily from Zhejiang and Guangdong in mainland China) and Hmong from Laos (1–2%). Other groups from Asia include Indians, Lebanese and Vietnamese.

The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons, who are of African and indigenous descent. The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River. The main Maroon groups are the Saramaca, Aukan (both of which also live in Suriname), and Boni (Aluku).

The main indigenous groups (forming about 3–4% of the population) are the Lokono, Teko (formerly known as the Emerillon), Kaliña (formerly known as the Galibi), Palikur, Wayampi and Wayana. As of the late 1990s, there was evidence of an uncontacted group of Wayampi.

Immigration

More than one third of the population and nearly half adults are of foreign origin. Seven of ten people born in French Guiana were within one or two generations descendants of immigrants. About 12% of French Guiana’s population are French nationals from mainland France. Foreign nationals make up 37% of the population, half of whom are adults, well above national averages. Surinamese are the largest foreign group (1 in 8 people), followed by Haitians (9.3%) and Brazilians (9.2%). Other immigrant groups include people from Guyana (6%), Saint Lucia (3%), China (3%), and Laos (2%). A significant portion of these communities are undocumented: 52% of Brazilians, 49% of Surinamese, and 23% of Haitians, with 15–18% of the total population lacking legal status.

Immigration has shaped French Guiana since 1634, with the slave trade, penal colony, and gold rush drawing people from the Caribbean, China, and Lebanon. The 1902 Montagne Pelée eruption brought migrants from Martinique. The creation of the Guiana Space Center in Kourou further accelerated immigration, especially from Brazil. Surinamese migration surged during the 1982–1990 civil war, while Haitian arrivals grew during the Duvalier regime and increased through family reunification in the 1990s. In 1977, Hmong refugees from Laos arrived to support agricultural development.

Until the mid-2000s, most immigrants were from Suriname, Brazil, and Haiti. Today, origins are more diverse, including Spanish-speaking countries (e.g., Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic) and the Middle East (notably Syrians and Palestinians). This shift has led to rising numbers of undocumented immigrants eligible for state medical aid (AME), which rose from 17,000 in 2015 to over 33,000 in 2019.

Between 2005 and 2014, 7,934 asylum seekers (excluding minors) were recorded. Applications surged after, reaching 2,765 in 2020, mostly from Haitians (63.6%), followed by Syrians/Palestinians (16.9%), Cubans (9.9%), and Dominicans (3.8%). However, over 95% of these requests, primarily from Haitians, were rejected. For some, French Guiana's status as French territory makes it a "gateway" to Europe. Many live in crowded refugee camps with poor conditions and little protection from the elements. Neither local authorities nor the French government have made significant efforts to help the situation.

Languages

The official language of French Guiana is French, and it is the predominant language of the department, spoken by most residents as a first or second language. Regional languages include French Guianese Creole (not to be confused with Guyanese Creole), six Amerindian languages (Lokono, Palijur, Kali'na, Wayana, Wayampi, Emerillon), four Maroon creole languages (Saramaka, Paramaccan, Aluku, Ndyuka), as well as Hmong Njua.

Guianese Creole (Kreol Gwiyanè), a French-based creole, is spoken by about 50,000 people in French Guiana in 2006 and 3,000 in Brazil, where it is known as Patwua, Crioulo, or Caripuna. It serves as a lingua franca for diverse communities, including Amerindians, Maroons, Chinese, Brazilians, and Haitians, especially in coastal and Lower Oyapock regions. Dialects vary slightly between the western (Saint-Laurent) and eastern areas. However, in western French Guiana, Maroon languages like Sranan Tongo have become more dominant.

Maroon languages are spoken mainly along the French Guiana–Suriname border. On the coast, there are about 29,800 Maroon language speakers, with 7,400 more inland.

Aluku (Boni): 5,900 speakers, mainly along the Middle Maroni River and in cities like Cayenne and Kourou.

Paramaccan (Pamaka): 2,800 speakers in both French Guiana and Suriname, living near the Maroni River.

Ndyuka (Aukan, Okanisi): 14,000 speakers in French Guiana, 32,000 in Suriname; spoken by multiple Maroon groups.

Saramaccan (Samaka): The most distinct Maroon language, with strong Portuguese influence; 14,500 speakers in French Guiana and 32,000 in Suriname.

Amerindian Languages:

Lokono: ~600 speakers

Palikur: ~1,100 speakers

Cariban family: 30 Apalai, 2,700 Kali'na, and 800 Wayana speakers

Religion

The dominant religion of French Guiana is Catholicism; the Maroons and some Amerindian peoples maintain their own religions. The Hmong people are also largely Catholic owing to the influence of missionaries who helped bring them to French Guiana. French Guianan Catholics are part of the Diocese of Cayenne.

Health

French Guiana, as an overseas territory of France, benefits from a comprehensive and modern universal healthcare system, with the highest per capita health spending in Latin America (double that of Chile) despite having a much younger median age of 22.

Major Hospitals

Andrée-Rosemon Hospital, Cayenne (full service hospital)

Regional Health Care

Centre Hospitalier de Cayenne, Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock

Centre Hospitalier de Kourou, Kourou

Centre Hospitalier de l’Ouest Guyanais, Saint-Laurent du Maroni

Private Hospital Saint-Paul, Cayenne

Remote interior villages, largely home to Maroon and Amerindian communities and only reachable by air or river, also host around 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented Brazilian gold miners working under harsh conditions. Healthcare in these areas is free and accessible to everyone, including undocumented migrants, through a network of 17 centers staffed by professionals trained in mainland France. The region reflects a complex interplay of migration, inequality, and public services, where both chronic and infectious diseases remain major health challenges.

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Hospital Center of Western Guiana (HCWG) have partnered to enhance cross-border healthcare between French Guiana and Suriname. This collaboration includes the opening of two new hospitals, one in Saint-Laurent du Maroni and another in Albina. The agreement is aimed at providing essential medical services for residents on both sides of the border, permitting cross-border patient transfers and enabling Surinamese residents to receive treatments like dialysis and chemotherapy closer to home, thereby reducing the need for long journeys to Paramaribo. Additionally, a dedicated team, including coordinators, a social worker, and an interpreter, has been established to facilitate these cross-border healthcare services.

Fertility

The total fertility rate in French Guiana has remained high and is today considerably higher than that of metropolitan France, as well as most of the other French overseas departments. It is largely responsible for the rapid population growth of French Guiana.

Culture

Festivities

The Carnival is one of the major events in French Guiana. Considered the longest in the world, it takes place on afternoon of Sunday, between Epiphany at the beginning of January and Ash Wednesday in February or (month). Groups disguised according to the theme of the year parade around decorated floats to the rhythm of percussion and brass. The preparation of the groups starts months before the carnival. The groups parade in front of thousands of spectators who gather on the sidewalks and bleachers arranged for the occasion.

Brazilian groups identical to those in the Rio carnival are also appreciated for their rhythms and their alluring costumes. The Chinese community of Cayenne also participates in the parades, adding elements such as dragons.

At the start of the evening, the Touloulous, typical characters of the French Guianan carnival, go to the dancings to participate in the famous paré-masked balls.

Architecture

The local architecture is characterized by its Creole, Amerindian and Bushinenge influences. The main towns contain predominantly Creole-style architecture, with some Western-style buildings and forts. In communes with black Maroon populations, houses in Bushinengue styles are commonly found. Amerindian communes are recognized for their pre-colonial type carbets. Most of these buildings were designed with local materials, such as wood from the Amazonian forests and bricks made on site. These local architectural styles blend with contemporary buildings.

Literature

French Guianan literature includes all works written by local authors or persons related to French Guiana. It is expressed both in French and in French Guianan Creole.

Local literature is a literature closely related to that of the French West Indies: especially the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. For some, it is an Antillean-Guianan literature in relation to the themes addressed, which are mainly related to slavery and other social problems. Thus, this literature takes several forms. First, orality, because it is a characteristic element of French Guianan literature, as in many countries of Black America. In this connection, we can consider tales, Legends, fables and, in another form, Novels.

Nineteenth century French Guiana is marked by a weak presence of writers. At that time, writers only published a few scattered poems in local newspapers. Today, however, it is difficult to trace the writings of some French Guianan poets: Ho-A-Sim-Elosem, Munian, R. Octaville, etc. Two French Guianan poets are the exception. According to Ndagano (1996), Ismaÿl Urbain and Fabien Flavien would be considered the first French Guianan poets. However, Alfred Parépou is a writer who marked his era with his work Atipa (1885).

The period from 1900 to 1950 constitutes an important stage in local literature insofar as it gave birth to numerous writers who had a considerable impact, such as those of Negritude (Négritude). The French Guianan of the 1950s and 1960s is notable for writing about the black cause. Serge Patient and Elie Stephenson did address this issue in their writings.

Since 1970 different generations of writers have become aware of the black cause or slavery. Whether through their writings or their political activities, they take into account this painful period that had serious consequences on the local society and on the black world in general. For this generation, Christiane Taubira remains the figurehead. Other writers are interested in other types of themes, such as regional nature, etc.

Cuisine

French Guianan cuisine is rich in the different cultures that mix in French Guiana. Creole restaurants rub shoulders with Chinese restaurants in large cities such as Cayenne, Kourou and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The local culinary art originally brought together Guianan Creole, Bushinengue and Native South American cuisines.

All of these cuisines have several ingredients in common:

Manioc;

Smoked meats and fish

This southern Caribbean territory has many typical dishes, such as Awara broth, Creole galette, Dizé milé, Countess, Cramanioc pudding, Kalawanng, Couac gratin and salad, Fricasse of iguana or its famous Pimentade (fish or chicken court-bouillon).

Atipas are local fishes beloved by the French Guianese often prepared with coconut milk.

At Easter, French Guianan people eat a traditional dish called Awara broth.

For weddings, locals traditionally eat Colombo, which is a type of curry that has become a staple of the French Guianese cuisine.

Sport

Sport in French Guiana dates back to long before the colonial period. Popularized since the 19th century, the first sports competition organized to commemorate 14 July was held in 1890. At that time, there were already physical activities that were favorable to the native population of the Amazonian territory, as well as sports introduced from Europe, which favored the colonizers. There were foot races, donkey races, canoe races, bicycle races, tricycle races, nautical regattas in the ports, and traditional popular games.

The most popular sport in French Guiana today is football, followed by basketball, cycling, swimming and handball, although there are some canoeing, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, aikido, karate, fencing, horseback riding, rowing and volleyball clubs in the department.

As a French Overseas department, Guiana is not a member of the Pan American Sports Organization; rather, athletes compete within the French National Olympic and Sports Committee and are governed by the Ligue d'Athlétisme de la Guyane, a sub-unit of the Fédération française d'athlétisme.

Starting in 1960, the Tour of Guiana, an annual multiple-stage bicycle race, is held.

The territory has its own local team, the French Guiana football team. A regional football league, the LFG (Ligue de Football de la Guyane), was established in October 1962. It is currently not affiliated to FIFA, but has been affiliated to the FFF (French Football Federation) since 27 April 1963 and has been an associate member of CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean League) since 1978. In April 2013, the LFG became a full member of CONCACAF.

The French Guiana Football Team, also known as Yana Dòkò, is a selection of the best local players under the auspices of the LFG. It is not recognized by FIFA, but participates in CONCACAF competitions. It played its first match against Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) in 1936, losing 3-1. It had its biggest victory on 26 September 2012 against St. Pierre and Miquelon (11-1) and its biggest defeat was also against Dutch Guiana, losing 9-0 on 2 March 1947.

The team has participated in events such as the CONCACAF Nations Cup / Gold Cup, Caribbean Nations Cup (between 1978 and 2017), CONCACAF Nations League, Overseas Cup (Coupe de l'Outre-Mer, 2008–2012) and the Tournament of 4 (Tournoi des 4).