Jamaica’s mean population continued to increase in 2004. It rose from 2,630,371 in 2003 to 2,644,604 in 2004, an increase of 14,233 or 0.5%. Previously, it had increased from 2,617,459 which was a magnitude of 12,912 also 0.5%. The country’s population growth rate over the past six years has averaged 0.6%.

POPULATION

Estimated Population and Annual Movement

The end of year population in 2004 stood at 2,650,900 which was a slight increase of 12,600 or 0.5 % from the previous year’s total of 2,638,300. Over the six-year period as shown in Table 1, the end of year population has consistently increased by an average of 0.5% from year to year for 1999 to 2004.

The net external movement, which speaks to the number of persons added to the population after taking the island’s emigration and immigration totals into account, decreased minimally from 1999 to 2002 but then increased significantly in 2003 then did not change significantly in 2004.

TABLE 1: ESTIMATED POPULATION AND ANNUAL MOVEMENT IN 1999 TO 2004

The total deaths registered from 1999 to 2004 showed a steady decline over the six-year period. Total births registered remained constant around 54,000 for 1999, 2000 and 2001. In 2002, there was a significant decrease to 48,104 and in the following two years there were minimal decreases.

Population Growth Rate

As previously mentioned, the population growth rate for Jamaica averaged 0.5% for 1999 to 2004. In 1999, the population stood at 2,581,700; however, by 2004 it had risen to 2,650,900.

TABLE 1a: POPULATION GROWTH RATE FOR 1999 TO 2004

In respect of the parishes’ mean populations, Kingston and St. Andrew led with a total of 658,515, then St. Catherine with 486,302 and Clarendon with 240,592. The parishes with the lowest populations were Hanover and Trelawny with totals of 66,518 and 73,103 respectively.

The trends for the rates per population of registered vital events reveal interesting facts. In respect of live births per population, the leading parishes were Manchester, St. James and St. Ann with 29.5, 22.5 and 21.7 respectively. Conversely Hanover had the lowest rate at 7.9. For deaths, the top three parishes were Manchester, Kingston and St. Andrew and St. James with 7.2, 6.4 and 6.3, while St. Catherine had the lowest with 3.7. Parishes with high rates of marriage included the hotel-rich parishes of Hanover, St. Ann and St. James with rates of 25.2, 23.1 and 22.5. Clarendon had the lowest rate of marriage at 3.1. Westmoreland, Portland and Manchester led stillbirth rates with 20.0, 19.8 and 17.7 respectively while St. Thomas had no stillbirths being registered in 2004.

TABLE 2: ESTIMATED POPULATION OF PARISHES- LIVE BIRTHS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES, STILL BIRTHS AND CORRESPONDING RATES FOR 2004