KEY FACTS

Joined Commonwealth: 1962
Population: 2,769,000 (2012)
GDP p.c. growth: 0.5% p.a. 1990–2011
UN HDI 2012: world ranking 85
Official language: English
Time: GMT minus 5hr
Currency: Jamaican dollar (J$)

Geography

Area: 10,991 sq km
Coastline: 1,020 km
Capital: Kingston

Jamaica, whose name comes from the Arawak Xaymaca, meaning ‘Land of Wood and Water’, lies south of Cuba and west of Haiti. Area: The third largest island in the Caribbean, Jamaica has a land area of 10,991 sq km.

Main towns:

Kingston (capital, pop. 577,800 in 2010), Spanish Town (162,400), Portmore (106,000), Montego Bay (79,800), Mandeville (48,300), May Pen (45,700), Old Harbour (28,700), Linstead (22,800), Savanna-la-Mar (19,400), Half Way Tree (18,100), St Ann’s Bay (14,900), Port Antonio (14,300), Bog Walk (14,200), Ewarton (14,100), Constant Spring (12,500), Morant Bay (11,100), Hayes (9,800) and Ocho Rios (9,600).

Society

KEY FACTS 2012

Population per sq km: 252
Life expectancy: 73 years

Population:

2,769,000 (2012); 52 per cent of people live in urban areas; growth 0.7 per cent p.a. 1990–2012 but emigration (principally to the UK, Canada and the USA) has been significant for two generations; birth rate 18 per 1,000 people (35 in 1970); life expectancy 73 years (68 in 1970). The population is predominantly of African descent (91 per cent in 2001 census), with European-, East Indian- and Chinese-descended minorities, and some people of mixed descent (six per cent).

Language:

English; an English-based Creole is widely spoken

Education:

Public spending on education was six per cent of GDP in 2010. There are six years of compulsory education starting at the age of six. Primary school comprises six years and secondary five. Some 95 per cent of pupils complete primary school (2009). The school year starts in September. The regional University of the West Indies (UWI, established in 1946) has its principal campus at Mona, near Kingston, and other main campuses in Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Norman Manley Law School (1973) is located on the Mona campus of UWI. Some 50 other tertiary institutions – public and private –registered with the University Council of Jamaica in 2011 include the Management Institute for National Development; University of Technology; College of Agriculture, Science and Education; Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts; G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sports; Knox Community College; and Northern Caribbean University (owned by the Seventh Day Adventists, located in Mandeville, a university since 1999). The female–male ratio for gross enrolment in tertiary education is 2.30:1 (2009). Literacy among people aged 15–24 is 95 per cent (2010). In 1974 Jamaica hosted the Sixth Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Kingston. Commonwealth Education Ministers meet every three years to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest.