Suriname is a multiethnic and multilingual society, home to people of various ethnic, racial, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants.

Aside from the indigenous population, nearly all Surinamese or their ancestors arrived since the Age of Discovery and establishment of the colony of Surinam, primarily from Africa, Europe and Asia.

The population of Suriname is made up of various distinguishable ethnic groups: Most of the inhabitants live in the north of the country, in the districts of Paramaribo, Wanica and Nickerie.

[13] Approximately 350,000 individuals of Surinamese descent now live in the Netherlands, with mass migration beginning in the years leading up to Suriname's independence in 1975, and continuing during military rule in the 1980s and for largely economic reasons extended throughout the 1990s.

Other emigration destinations include French Guiana, the United States, Aruba, Curaçao, Belgium, Canada, Indonesia and Guyana.