POPULATION
The mean population of Jamaica increased in 2003 from the previous year’s total of 2,617,459 to 2,630,371, which was an increase of 12,912 or 0.5%. The population growth rate increased from  0.4%  in 2002  to 0.6%,  the  rate  of  growth experienced  for  each of the  three years  1999 to 2001.

BIRTHS - Occurring and Registered
The total births registered in 2003 decreased by 521 or 1.1% from 48,104 in 2002 to 47,583. Births occurring in the year also decreased from 44,331 to 43,407, a magnitude of 924 or 2.1%. The near 50:50 gender ratio was maintained in the current year as was observed for the previous year.

• Births In and Out of Wedlock The island’s rate of births occurring in and out of wedlock was unfavourably up by 1.4% from 82.2% in 2002 to 83.6% in 2003. In addition, the percentage of fathers who did not have their particulars entered on their child’s birth registration was also unfavourably high at 45.8%, up from the previous year’s corresponding value of 44.4%.

• Deliveries in Institutions The percentage of institutional deliveries for 2003 was recorded as being 95.7%, which indicated an increased proportion over the previous year’s percentage of 93.4% for these deliveries. Percentage births attended to by qualified attendant also increased from 95.4% in 2002 to 97.2% in 2003.

• Timing of Registrations With respect to time of registration, undesirable trends were also observed in the current year. From 2002 to 2003, births registered in the same month of occurrence declined from 43.7% to 39.8% and delay in registration increased from 11.8% to 15.7%.

• Teenage Births The rate of teenage deliveries or deliveries to mothers nineteen years and under decreased slightly from 19.9% to 19.4% in the current year. As has been the trend in past years, the most fecund age group overall continued to be the 20-24 year old age group.

DEATHS
Total deaths registered in 2003 did not differ significantly from that in 2002; 14,931 in 2002 compared to 14,939. Deaths recorded as occurring in 2003 increased to 14,667 from the total 14,042 in 2002. Regarding place of death, the overall percentages for each category for the island were 46.6% in public institutions, 3.4% in private institutions and the remaining 50.0% in other places.

By gender, adult male deaths accounted for 49.6%, adult female for 46.2%, infant male for 2.3% and infant females for 1.9% of all deaths registered in 2003. The three leading causes of deaths in adults continue to be “Cerebrovascular Disease”, “Diabetes Mellitus” and “Ischaemic Heart Disease”.

MARRIAGES
Marriages registered in 2003 decreased by 594 or 2.6% to 22,476 compared with 23,070 in 2002.  Hotel marriages also decreased minimally from 10,580 (45.9%) to 10,037 (44.7%). By proportion, the leading parishes for hotel marriages were St. Ann, Hanover and Westmoreland.

DIVORCES
Divorces absolute totalled 1,600 in 2003, a decline of 145 or 8.3% from the total of 1,745 recorded in 2002.