Agricultural activity is concentrated along the coastal belt where most of the population resides.
Extensive timber resources in the tropical hinterland remain largely unexploited. Guyana's population, estimated at about 800,000, has grown only marginally over the past decade as a result of a low birth rate and continuous emigration. The results were dismal. The sugar and bauxite industries, the two pillars of the economy, collapsed after they were nationalized. Production of sugar fell from 350,000 tons to 130,000, and that of calcined bauxite from over 800,000 tons to less than 200,000 tons.