Jamaica 
Facts
Population:
2,665,636 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years:
29.7% (male 405,189; female 386,555)
15-64 years:
63.52% (male 845,226; female 847,944)
65 years and over:
6.78% (male 80,667; female 100,055) (2001 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.51% (2001 est.)
Birth rate:
18.12 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Death rate:
5.48 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Net migration rate:
-7.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
1 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.81 male(s)/female
total population:
1 male(s)/female (2001 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
14.16 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
75.42 years
male:
73.45 years
female:
77.49 years (2001 est.)
Total fertility rate:
2.08 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.71% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
9,900 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
650 (1999 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Jamaican(s)
adjective:
Jamaican
Ethnic groups:
black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%, mixed 7.3%, other 0.1%
Religions:
Protestant 61.3% (Church of God 21.2%, Baptist 8.8%, Anglican 5.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 9%, Pentecostal 7.6%, Methodist 2.7%, United Church 2.7%, Brethren 1.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.6%, Moravian 1.1%), Roman Catholic 4%, other, including some spiritual cults 34.7%
Languages:
English, Creole
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over has ever attended school
total population:
85%
male:
80.8%
female:
89.1% (1995 est.)
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $9.7 billion (2000 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
0.2% (2000 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $3,700 (2000 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture:
7.4%
industry:
35.2%
services:
57.4% (1999 est.)
Population below poverty line:
34.2% (1992 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
2.9%
highest 10%:
28.9% (1996)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
8.8% (2000 est.)
Labor force:
1.13 million (1998)
Labor force - by occupation:
services 60%, agriculture 21%, industry 19% (1998)
Unemployment rate:
16% (2000 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$2.23 billion
expenditures:
$2.56 billion, including capital expenditures of $232.5 million (FY99/00 est.)
Industries:
tourism, bauxite, textiles, food processing, light manufactures, rum, cement, metal, paper, chemical products
Industrial production growth rate:
-2% (2000 est.)
Electricity - production:
6.53 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel:
92.28%
hydro:
1.36%
nuclear:
0%
other:
6.36% (1999)
Electricity - consumption:
6.073 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (1999)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (1999)
Agriculture - products:
sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus, potatoes, vegetables; poultry, goats, milk
Exports:
$1.7 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Exports - commodities:
alumina, bauxite; sugar, bananas, rum
Exports - partners:
US 35.7%, EU (excluding UK) 15.8%, UK 13%, Canada 10.5% (1999)
Imports:
$3 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and transport equipment, construction materials, fuel, food, chemicals, fertilizers
Imports - partners:
US 47.8%, Caricom countries 12.4%, Latin America 7.2%, EU (excluding UK) 4.7% (1999)
Debt - external:
$4.7 billion (2000 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$102.7 million (1995)
Currency:
Jamaican dollar (JMD)
Currency code:
JMD
Exchange rates:
Jamaican dollars per US dollar - 45.557 (January 2001), 42.701 (2000), 39.044 (1999), 36.550 (1998), 35.404 (1997), 37.120 (1996)
Fiscal year:
1 April - 31 March
Statistics: CIA World Factbook.
Press
(Privately-owned, Independent), Kingston
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/
(Privately-owned, Independent), Kingston
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/
Jamaica Record, The
(Independent), Kingston
Sunday Gleaner, The
(Centrist), Kingston
Jamaica in the News
1
2
Displaying 1 to 4 of 5 items.
Countries around the world have taken preventive measures against a potential outbreak of bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since it was first discovered in 2003.
The Jamaica Gleaner endorses the Caribbean Community's call for a U.N.-led investigation into the circumstances under which Jean-Bertrand Aristide relinquished the presidency of Haiti.
'There is a Caribbean ambivalence toward Haiti which this newspaper finds unfortunate and, frankly, distasteful,' an unsigned editorial from the Jamaica Gleaner begins.
Ripples from the furious battle for control of the United Kingdom’s fourth-largest food retailer, Safeway, have washed hard against the shores of the eastern Caribbean. Robert Taylor reviews the Carribbean press.
Americas 
