Aerial view of the low-lying coast with its Dutch-built seawalls
Courtesy Embassy of Guyana, Washington

Aerial view of Georgetown showing the layout designed by the Dutch, mostly on a grid pattern
Courtesy Embassy of Guyana, Washington

Guyana remained a primarily rural country in 1991. The only significant urban area, the capital city of Georgetown, was home to more than 80 percent of the urban population. The smaller towns served primarily as regional distribution centers. Georgetown had an estimated population of 195,000 in 1985 and an annual growth rate of 6.6 percent. Linden, the country's second largest town with a population of 30,000, was a bauxite mining complex on the Demerara River. The port of New Amsterdam in eastern Guyana had a population of about 20,000.

The proportion of the population living in urban areas increased only slightly between 1960, when it was 29 percent, and 1980, when it was 30.5 percent. By 1985, 32.2 percent of the population was living in urban areas.

Data as of January 1992