[4] This was the location of the first Dutch settlement, a trading post established by Nicolaes Baliestel and Dirck Claeszoon van Sanen in 1613.

In 1662, Governor Willoughby was granted the settlement and surrounding lands (extending into Suriname's interior) by King Charles II.

[7] The population of the town was greatly increased after 1873, when former enslaved people (who had been freed in 1863) were allowed to stop working for their former masters and leave the sugar plantations.

The city is located on the Suriname River, approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the Paramaribo district.

Because Paramaribo is more subject to the Intertropical Convergence Zone than the trade winds and sees no tropical cyclones, its climate is classified as equatorial.

The northern hemisphere "autumn" (September through November) is the driest period of the year in Paramaribo, and the heaviest rainfall occurs from April to July.

[1] The city is famed for its diverse ethnic makeup with 27% identifying as Creoles (African or mixed African-European descent), 23% as East Indian, 18% as Multiracial, 16% as Maroons (descendants of escaped enslaved Africans), 10% as Javanese, 2% as Indigenous, 1.5% as Chinese, and smaller numbers of Europeans (primarily of Dutch and Portuguese descent), Lebanese and Jews.

Even though the capital city does not produce significant goods itself, almost all revenues from the country's main export products gold, oil, bauxite, rice, and tropical wood are channeled through its institutions.

The Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge, which is part of the East-West Link, connects Paramaribo with Meerzorg on the other side of the Suriname River.

The Dutch colonial town established in 17th and 18th centuries was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.