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CENSUS 2011 FINDINGS
Population Size and Growth
The count of the population based on the 2011 Population and Housing Census is
2,697,983. This total comprises 2,678,629 persons in private dwellings, 18,420 in
institutions and 934 persons enumerated on the streets. The total represents a 3.5 per
cent increase in nine and a half years since the 2001 census over the count of 2,607,632 at
that census. This increase represents an average annual rate of growth of only 0.36 per
cent since 2001 and continues the reduction in annual rates of growth observed since
the 1970s (see Table (i)). In numerical terms the addition to the population between 2001
and 2011 was less than 100,000. Average annual absolute increase over the period was
about 9,500 compared to the 21,800 average annual increase between 1991 and 2001.
Table (i) Summary of Population Movements in Jamaica: 1911-2011
Census
year
Population
Intercensal Increase
Total
Increase
Average Annual
Increase
Annual (%) rate
of growth
a
1911
831,383
1921
858,118
26,735
2,658
0.31
1943
1,237,063
378,945
17,341
1.67
1960
1,609,814
372,751
21,610
1.56
1970
1,848,512
238,698
23,870
1.39
1982
2,190,357
341,845
28,082
1.40
1991
b
2,380,666
190,309
21,646
0.95
2001
2,607,632
226,966
21,761
0.87
2011
2,697,983
90,351
9,511
0.36
Sources: Data for 1911-1970 from Roberts, 1974; 1982-2001 from The Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 2003.
a
Exponential growth rates using exact intervals between census dates (1911-21 = 10.060yrs, 1921-43 = 21.852 yrs, 1943-
60 = 17.249 yrs, 1960-1970 = 10.00 yrs, 1970-82 = 12.173 yrs, 1982-91 = 8.792 yrs, 1991-2001 = 10.430 yrs, 2001-2011 = 9.5
years)
b
1991 represents the identified population.
Population change must be interpreted within the context of the three components of
population change: births, deaths and migration, events which add or take away from
the population – “growth, decline or maintenance of the same numbers- a very delicate
balance- are all the outcome of these three factors.”(Barclay 1958, 2). The components of
the increase between 2001 and 2011 for Jamaica were additions of 438,318 from births
and losses of 347,967 from deaths and migration.
The very low rate of growth of 0.36 per cent was only the second time since census
taking began in the late nineteenth century that rates have been this low. The previous
period was between 1911 and 1921, and the low rate at that time was attributable to the
high levels of migration. Recent low rates are directly attributable to declining numbers