Suriname has a total of around 14 local languages, but Dutch is the sole official language and is the language used in education, government, business, and the media. Over 60% of the population are native speakers of Dutch and around 20%-30% speak it as a second language. In 2004, Suriname became an associate member of the Dutch Language Union. It is the only Dutch-speaking country in South America and the only independent nation in the Americas in which Dutch is spoken by a majority of the population and one of the two non-Romance-speaking countries in South America, the other being English-speaking Guyana.