Demerara was one of the original British colonies that was joined into the colony of British Guiana, now Guyana. It was located around the mouth of the Demerara River, and its main town was Georgetown. Demerara is now one of three counties of Guyana. The other two counties are Berbice and Essequibo. Before the colony became British, it was a Dutch colony .

Demerara is also the generic name of a type of speciality raw cane sugar often used in home baking and in sweetening coffee. It is normally brown in colour - the natural colour of cane sugar. It is so named as the cane sugar from Demerara colony ( above ) was the original source of this type of sugar.