Which South American country has Dutch as its official language?

Suriname is the South American country whose official language is Dutch.

Dutch became established in Suriname during the country’s period as a Dutch colony. It remained the language of government, education, administration, and formal public life after Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands in 1975. Today, Surinamese Dutch is the local national variety, with distinctive pronunciation and vocabulary shaped by the country’s multilingual society.

Dutch is not the only language people speak in Suriname. Sranan Tongo is widely used as a lingua franca, while Sarnámi Hindustáni, Javanese, Maroon languages, Chinese languages, and Indigenous languages are also present. Many residents speak more than one language, and Dutch is especially prominent in schooling, official documents, and national institutions.

A frequent mix-up is Guyana, whose official language is English, and French Guiana, whose official language is French. Suriname’s Dutch status reflects its colonial history, but the country’s culture is not simply European: its language environment was formed by Indigenous peoples, Africans and Maroons, Indians, Javanese, Chinese communities, and later migrants. That makes Suriname linguistically distinctive in South America.