French Guiana

Economy & income

Currency

• Euro (EUR, €) — French Guiana is a French overseas department/region (DROM) & EU outermost region
• €1 ≈ $1.14 / ~€0.88 per USD (15 Jul 2026)

GDP per capita

• ~€17,657 nominal (2024, INSEE/Cerom) ≈ ~$20,100
• total GDP ~€5.24B (2024)
• This is only ~44% of mainland-France GDP/capita — the POOREST French DROM — yet still a euro/EU territory
• PPP n/a — World Bank/IMF fold French Guiana into France and publish no separate PPP figure

Average salary

• ~€2,465 net/mo EQTP private sector (INSEE, 2023) ≈ ~$2,810 net
• ~€2,400 (2024)
• gross avg ~€3,100/mo
• Public sector with ~40% overseas cost-of-living bonus (prime de vie chère) lifts averages, but a very large informal economy + high unemployment (~13-19%, youth 40%+) means many earn far less

Median salary

• n/a precise — INSEE publishes mean net EQTP (~€2,465/mo) not a clean monthly median for the DROM
• Reality skews low: ~half the population lives below the national poverty line and median standard of living (~€9-10K/yr) is roughly half the mainland (~€22K) — deep inequality

Minimum wage

National SMIC applies (same as mainland France; DROM excl. Mayotte): €1,823.03/mo gross from 1 Jan 2026 (€12.02/hr, ~€1,443 net), raised to €1,867.02/mo gross from 1 Jun 2026 (~$2,130/mo gross; ~$1,645 net) — a Western-level legal floor, though widely undercut in the informal sector

Cost of living

• High — imported goods inflated by the 'octroi de mer' local import tax (~15-35%) plus long freight
• food/consumer prices run well above mainland France
• Numbeo Cayenne (Oct 2025, ~110 entries/4 contributors — thin, treat cautiously): single ~€1,238/mo excl. rent, ~24.5% above Germany

Digital landscape

Population

• 311 thousand (Jan 2025, DataReportal)
• INSEE official ~286K (2021 census) rising ~2%+/yr toward ~296-312K by 2025 — the youngest, fastest-growing population in France
• real figure likely undercounted (informal migration from Haiti, Brazil & Suriname)

Internet users

• 56.1% (~175K users, Jan 2025) — well below other DROMs
• ~137K (43.9%) still offline (poverty, rural/forest interior, weak coverage)

Social media users

• 29.7% (~92.3K identities, Jan 2025) — 52.9% of internet users
• 52.0% female

Mobile connections

• 401K cellular connections = 129% of population (Jan 2025)
• 96.1% broadband (3G/4G/5G)

Devices

• desktop ~58.5% / mobile ~39.6% / tablet ~2.0% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — desktop-skewed by workplace/admin/space-centre traffic and a small sample
• real consumer behaviour is mobile-first (mobile connections = 129% of pop)

Ad spend

• n/a — DataReportal's French Guiana report publishes no headline ad-spend figure (small market folded into France)
• buying runs through Meta, TikTok, Snap & Google auctions via France/DROM targeting

Top social platforms

Facebook ~92.3K, 29.7% of pop — the dominant network; strongest for reach, groups & Marketplace

Instagram ~89K, 28.6% — co-leader, youth/lifestyle

LinkedIn ~57K ad-reach, 18.3% — inflated by registered-member counting

Messenger ~47K, 15.1%

TikTok ~38K adults 18+, 19.3% of 18+ — fast-growing with the very young population

X/Twitter ~17.4K, 5.6% — small and shrinking

Messengers

• WhatsApp (de-facto #1 for personal chat, mainland-France diaspora links & cross-border Brazil/Suriname/Haiti contact; not in Meta ad list)
• Facebook Messenger (~47K, ad-reported)
• Instagram DM
• Snapchat (youth)
• iMessage (meaningful given ~43% iOS share)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Carte Bancaire (CB) / Visa / Mastercard — dominant online & POS (SEPA/EUR rails)
• SEPA bank transfer / French bank accounts (Crédit Agricole/CMM, BNP, La Banque Postale, BRED, Banque des Antilles Françaises)
• Cash (still heavily used in-person — younger, poorer, more informal & unbanked than other DROMs)
• PayPal & card for cross-border e-commerce and mail-forwarding
• American Express (limited acceptance)

E-wallets

• PayPal (main usable e-wallet, esp. cross-border)
• Apple Pay / Google Pay (growing; Apple Pay strong given ~43% iOS)
• Paylib (French inter-bank wallet)
• Lydia / Sumeria (P2P). No M-Pesa-style mobile money — French Guiana runs on euro/SEPA banking, not African mobile-money wallets

Cash on delivery

• Low — organised e-commerce is card/prepaid
• cash-on-delivery is NOT a formal market model (unlike classic Tier-3)
• Cash dominates informal/in-person trade instead

E-commerce

• Low-to-moderate and heavily constrained by geography, freight and the 'octroi de mer' import tax
• Amazon.fr ships only Amazon-fulfilled items and most third-party sellers block the DROM, so shoppers rely on mail-forwarding (Easy-Delivery, Shop-e-Dom, ColisExpat, Dommarket) via a mainland address — delivery ~4-20 days up to several weeks
• Cdiscount, Shein & Temu popular direct

Notes

• Bank of issue is IEDOM (Banque de France's overseas arm)
• Plan for cards + Apple Pay/PayPal and a meaningful cash/unbanked segment, NOT COD or mobile money
• Campaigns typically run pan-DROM (Guadeloupe + Martinique + Guyane + Réunion)

Audience & culture

Languages

• French (sole official language; language of school, admin & media)
• French Guianese Creole / Kréyòl gwiyannen (French-based creole — the everyday lingua franca)
• Haitian Creole (very large Haitian immigrant community)
• Portuguese / Brazilian (border & immigrant community — Oiapoque/Saint-Georges, gold-mining)
• Bushinenge/Maroon creoles: Ndyuka, Aluku, Saramaka, Sranan Tongo (western Maroni region)
• Amerindian languages (Kali'na, Wayana, Wayampi, Palikur, Lokono, Teko), plus Hmong (Laotian refugee villages) & Hakka Chinese

Religion

• Roman Catholic ~74-75% (dominant)
• total Christian ~85-90% with fast-growing evangelical/Protestant, Adventist & Jehovah's Witnesses
• minorities Muslim, Hindu, Chinese folk, Hmong Catholic, Amerindian & Bushinenge traditional beliefs
• No official census (laïcité) — figures are estimates

Median age

• 25.0 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025) — one of the YOUNGEST populations in France & the EU (high birth rate + young migrants)
• the demographic opposite of aging Martinique/Guadeloupe

Key seasons

• Carnival (Jan-Feb-Mar — one of the world's LONGEST carnivals; famed Touloulou women-lead masked balls at weekend 'dancings'; flagship attention & spending)
• Christmas & New Year
• Back-to-school / rentrée (Aug-Sept — young population = big education/kids spend)
• Fête de la Musique (21 Jun), Abolition of Slavery (10 Jun), Bastille Day (14 Jul)
• Rainy season (Dec-Jul) vs dry season (Aug-Nov) — rains slow logistics/deliveries

Cultural notes

• Young, multi-ethnic, multilingual French/EU consumer with strong Creole, Amazonian, Maroon and immigrant (Haitian/Brazilian) identities
• Music (dancehall, zouk, kompa, reggae, drill) and football fandom (many France internationals are Guianese-born) are central
• Poorer & more informal than other DROMs → price-sensitive, mobile-first, Facebook + WhatsApp centred
• heavy diaspora ties to mainland France

Where to find creators

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Snapchat
• mainland-France & pan-Antilles-Guyane diaspora creators (e.g. The Palm Agency)

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Mike Maignan ~2M Instagram (@magicmikemaignan)

Footballer — AC Milan captain & France national-team goalkeeper; born in Cayenne (1995)

Jean-Clair Todibo ~664K Instagram

Footballer — centre-back for West Ham United & France; born in Cayenne (1999)

Odsonne Édouard ~195K Instagram

Footballer — striker (Crystal Palace, ex-Celtic); born in Kourou (1998)

Florent Malouda ~178K Instagram (@fmalouda)

Ex-footballer — Chelsea & Lyon winger, 80 France caps; born in Cayenne (1980)

Christiane Taubira n/a exact (limited/public-figure social presence)

Politician — former Minister of Justice of France (2012-2016), 2022 presidential candidate; born in Cayenne (1952)

Henri Salvador n/a (historical figure)

Legendary singer, guitarist & comedian ('Une chanson douce'), bossa-nova pioneer; born in Cayenne (1917-2008) — enduring cultural icon

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Mobile apps, gaming & sweepstakes (young, price-sensitive, mobile-first audience)
• E-commerce & mail-forwarding (Amazon.fr / Shein / Temu / Cdiscount reshipping)
• Sports betting & iGaming (ANJ-licensed only — big football culture)
• Telecom & mobile (Orange, SFR, Digicel, Free — plans, data, devices)
• Dating; fintech/neobanks & regulated consumer credit
• Beauty/fashion & nutra (compliance-sensitive under French/EU law)

Active networks

• No French Guiana-specific networks — reached via French/EU networks: Awin, Kwanko (FR leader), Effiliation, TimeOne, Rakuten Advertising, CJ Affiliate, Admitad/Mitgo
• Buy side: Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok Ads, Snap Ads, Google/YouTube (France/DROM targeting)
• Push/pop long-tail via Adsterra, Monetag, PropellerAds for cheap Francophone inventory

Payouts

• Priced in EUR at France/DROM benchmarks, but the POOREST DROM: euro/card payments and EU compliance, yet lower purchasing power than Martinique/Réunion (~half below poverty line, big informal/unbanked segment). CPMs cheap
• CPL/CPA mid-range (above African/Asian Tier-3, below mainland FR). Low volume
• lead quality decent but conversion depth limited by income

Competition

• Low local competition — tiny (~311K), French-language market usually run pan-DROM or Antilles-Guyane
• Main contest is global travel/eco-tourism affiliates bidding on 'Guyane'/space-centre keywords

Seasonality

• Carnival (Jan-Mar, extra-long), year-end (Christmas/New Year), back-to-school (Aug-Sept), major football tournaments (Euro/World Cup)
• rainy season Dec-Jul dampens delivery

Traffic sources

• Facebook & Instagram Ads (Meta — dominant)
• TikTok & Snapchat (very young skew)
• Google Search & YouTube
• WhatsApp sharing / community & diaspora groups
• Push / in-app (Adsterra, Monetag, PropellerAds) for cheap volume

Good to know

Capital

Cayenne

Major cities

• Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
• Matoury
• Kourou
• Remire-Montjoly
• Macouria
• Mana
• Maripasoula
• Apatou

Time zones

Single zone UTC−3 (America/Cayenne, GFT — French Guiana Time), no daylight saving year-round

Android vs iOS

57% 43%

Android 57% iOS 43%

Phone brands

• Apple iPhone (~43% — high, euro market)
• Samsung (Android leader)
• Xiaomi
• Oppo / Realme
• TECNO / Huawei (budget segment)

Top e-commerce

• Amazon.fr (direct only for Amazon-fulfilled items; third-party via mail-forwarding)
• Cdiscount (FR)
• Shein / Temu / AliExpress (Asia cross-border)
• Fnac / La Redoute (FR mail-order)
• Mail-forwarders: Easy-Delivery, Shop-e-Dom, ColisExpat, Dommarket
• Blada.com / Leboncoin / Facebook Marketplace (local C2C)

Peak activity

Weekday evenings ~18:00-22:00 local (UTC−3) and midday; Sunday mornings quiet (church); Facebook/WhatsApp-first. Note mainland-France diaspora sits +4/+5h ahead — split timing for diaspora vs local

Creative taboos

• Slavery & colonial history are sensitive (10 Jun abolition day)
• The 2017 general strike ('Nou bon ksé sa'/Pou Lagwiyann dékolé) over insecurity, cost of living & neglect is a live reference
• Illegal gold mining (orpaillage) & mercury pollution, high violent-crime/homicide rate, immigration (Haiti/Brazil/Suriname), 'vie chère' (high cost of living) and autonomy/independence politics are charged
• Respect Creole, Amerindian, Bushinenge & Hmong cultures

Also worth knowing

1. NOT a classic Tier-3 market in mechanics — EU outermost region on euro, card/SEPA payments, full French/EU ad law with real enforcement (no COD/mobile-money, no grey zone) — BUT it IS the poorest DROM (~$20K GDP/capita, ~half below the poverty line, large informal/unbanked economy, ~13-19% unemployment), so purchasing power sits well below Martinique/Réunion. Expect EU-grade compliance + thinner, price-sensitive conversions.
2. YOUNGEST population in France (median 25, high growth) → mobile gaming, TikTok, sweeps, betting, fashion/streetwear demand; reach the young via TikTok/Snapchat + Facebook/WhatsApp.
3. The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou (~16% of GDP, Ariane/ESA launches) adds a tech/space niche and a metropolitan-French expat segment; strong football-talent pipeline (Maignan, Todibo, Édouard, Malouda) makes sport a powerful creative hook. Carnival (Jan-Mar) is THE marketing peak; cross-border Brazil/Suriname ties run on WhatsApp.