Jamaica
constitutional parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realmIndependence 6 August 1962 (from the UK)
Jamaica as the 2009 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 131 fields, one of 36 editions from 1990 to 2025.
field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe open editionEach field below ends in its editions, 1990 to 2025. Point at a year above to follow it down.
No fields match. Try a shorter word.
Introduction
1 fieldBackground
The island - discovered by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1494 - was settled by the Spanish early in the 16th century. The native Taino Indians, who had inhabited Jamaica for centuries, were gradually exterminated and replaced by African slaves. England seized the island in 1655 and established a plantation economy based on sugar, cocoa, and coffee. The abolition of slavery in 1834 freed a quarter million slaves, many of whom became small farmers.
Jamaica gradually obtained increasing independence from Britain. In 1958 it joined other British Caribbean colonies in forming the Federation of the West Indies. Jamaica gained full independence when it withdrew from the Federation in 1962. Deteriorating economic conditions during the 1970s led to recurrent violence as rival gangs affiliated with the major political parties evolved into powerful organized crime networks involved in international drug smuggling and money laundering.
Violent crime, drug trafficking, and poverty pose significant challenges to the government today. Nonetheless, many rural and resort areas remain relatively safe and contribute substantially to the economy.
Geography
Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba
20 fieldsLand useshare of 10,991 sq km
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)
- total:
- 0.41 cu km/yr (34%/17%/49%)
- per capita:
- 155 cu m/yr (2000)
Environment - current issues
- heavy rates of deforestation;
- coastal waters polluted by industrial waste, sewage, and oil spills;
- damage to coral reefs;
- air pollution in Kingston results from vehicle emissions
Environment - international agreements
- party to:
- Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
- signed, but not ratified:
- none of the selected agreements
Geography - note
strategic location between Cayman Trench and Jamaica Channel, the main sea lanes for the Panama Canal
People
22 fieldsAge structuremale left, female right · (2009 est.)
Per 1,000 population
Male · female
Ethnic groups(2001 census)
Sex ratio
- at birth:
- 1.05 male(s)/female
- under 15 years:
- 1.03 male(s)/female
- 15-64 years:
- 0.97 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over:
- 0.81 male(s)/female
- total population:
- 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Religions
Protestant 62.5% (Seventh-Day Adventist 10.8%, Pentecostal 9.5%, Other Church of God 8.3%, Baptist 7.2%, New Testament Church of God 6.3%, Church of God in Jamaica 4.8%, Church of God of Prophecy 4.3%, Anglican 3.6%, other Christian 7.7%), Roman Catholic 2.6%, other or unspecified 14.2%, none 20.9%, (2001 census)
Government
Constitutional parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm; Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Prime Minister Bruce GOLDING (since 11 September 2007)
18 fieldsPresidential electionpercent of vote
Legislature, 60 seats, elected 3 September 2007one dot, one seat
Percent of vote
Capital
- name:
- Kingston
- geographic coordinates:
- 18 00 N, 76 48 W
- time difference:
- UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions
14 parishes; Clarendon, Hanover, Kingston, Manchester, Portland, Saint Andrew, Saint Ann, Saint Catherine, Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Trelawny, Westmoreland note: for local government purposes, Kingston and Saint Andrew were amalgamated in 1923 into the present single corporate body known as the Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation
Executive branch
- chief of state:
- Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Dr. Patrick L. ALLEN (since 26 February 2009)
- head of government:
- Prime Minister Bruce GOLDING (since 11 September 2007)
- cabinet:
- Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister
- elections:
- the monarch is hereditary;
- governor general appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister;
- following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition in the House of Representatives is appointed prime minister by the governor general;
- the deputy prime minister is recommended by the prime minister
Legislative branch
bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (a 21-member body appointed by the governor general on the recommendations of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition; ruling party is allocated 13 seats, and the opposition is allocated 8 seats) and the House of Representatives (60 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
- elections:
- last held 3 September 2007 (next to be held no later than October 2012)
- election results:
- percent of vote by party - JLP 50.1%, PNP 49.8%; seats by party - JLP 33, PNP 27
Judicial branch
- Supreme Court (judges appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister);
- Court of Appeal;
- Privy Council in UK;
- member of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)
Political parties and leaders
- Jamaica Labor Party or JLP [Bruce GOLDING];
- People's National Party or PNP [Portia SIMPSON-MILLER];
- National Democratic Movement or NDM [Michael WILLIAMS]
Political pressure groups and leaders
New Beginnings Movement or NBM; Rastafarians (black religious/racial cultists, pan-Africanists)
International organization participation
ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-15, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US
- chief of mission:
- Ambassador Anthony JOHNSON
- chancery:
- 1520 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
- telephone:
- [1] (202) 452-0660
- FAX:
- [1] (202) 452-0081
- consulate(s) general:
- Miami, New York
Diplomatic representation from the US
- chief of mission:
- Ambassador Brenda LaGrange JOHNSON
- embassy:
- 142 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6
- mailing address:
- P.O. Box 541, Kingston 5
- telephone:
- [1] (876) 702-6000
- FAX:
- [1] (876) 702-6001
Flag description
- diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles - green (top and bottom) and black (hoist side and outer side);
- green represents hope, vegetation, and agriculture, black reflects hardships overcome and to be faced, and yellow recalls golden sunshine and the island's natural resources
Economy
The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which now account for more than 60% of GDP. The country continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism, remittances, and bauxite/alumina.
48 fieldsGDP - composition by sector(2008 est.)
Trading partnersexports left, imports right
Electricity
Economy - overview
The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which now account for more than 60% of GDP. The country continues to derive most of its foreign exchange from tourism, remittances, and bauxite/alumina. Remittances account for nearly 20% of GDP and are equivalent to tourism revenues.
Jamaica's economy, already saddled with the lowest economic growth in Latin America, will face increasing difficulties as the global economy slows. The economy faces serious long-term problems: a sizable merchandise trade deficit, large-scale unemployment and underemployment, and a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 130%. Jamaica's onerous debt burden - the fourth highest per capita - is the result of government bailouts to ailing sectors of the economy, most notably the financial sector in the mid-to-late 1990s.
It hinders government spending on infrastructure and social programs as debt servicing accounts for nearly half of government expenditures. Inflation rose sharply in 2008 as a result of high prices for imported food and oil and should fall in 2009 with the decline in international oil prices.
High unemployment exacerbates the serious crime problem, including gang violence that is fueled by the drug trade. The GOLDING administration faces the difficult prospect of having to achieve fiscal discipline in order to maintain debt payments while simultaneously attacking a serious and growing crime problem that is hampering economic growth.
Distribution of family income - Gini index
45.5 (2004) · 37.9 (2000) country comparison to the world: 42
Commercial bank prime lending rate
16.83% (31 December 2008) · 17.2% (31 December 2007) country comparison to the world: 28
Stock of money
$1.253 billion (31 December 2008) · $1.369 billion (31 December 2007) country comparison to the world: 83
Stock of quasi money
$4.244 billion (31 December 2008) · $4.54 billion (31 December 2007) country comparison to the world: 74
Stock of domestic credit
$7.175 billion (31 December 2008) · $6.609 billion (31 December 2007) country comparison to the world: 78
Agriculture - products
- sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus, yams, ackees, vegetables;
- poultry, goats, milk;
- crustaceans, mollusks
Industries
tourism, bauxite/alumina, agro processing, light manufactures, rum, cement, metal, paper, chemical products, telecommunications
Current account balance
-$2.745 billion (2008 est.) · -$1.744 billion (2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 144
Exports - commodities
alumina, bauxite, sugar, rum, coffee, yams, beverages, chemicals, wearing apparel, mineral fuels
Imports - commodities
food and other consumer goods, industrial supplies, fuel, parts and accessories of capital goods, machinery and transport equipment, construction materials
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
$1.767 billion (31 December 2008 est.) · $1.879 billion (31 December 2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 113
Debt - external
$10.65 billion (31 December 2008 est.) · $9.657 billion (31 December 2007 est.) country comparison to the world: 85
Exchange rates
Jamaican dollars (JMD) per US dollar - 72.236 (2008 est.), 69.034 (2007), 65.768 (2006), 62.51 (2005), 61.197 (2004)
Communications
8 fieldsTelephone system
- general assessment:
- fully automatic domestic telephone network
- domestic:
- the 1999 agreement to open the market for telecommunications services resulted in rapid growth in mobile-cellular telephone usage while the number of fixed-lines in use has declined;
- combined mobile-cellular teledensity now roughly 100 per 100 persons
- international:
- country code - 1-876;
- the Fibralink submarine cable network provides enhanced delivery of business and broadband traffic and is linked to the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) submarine cable in the Dominican Republic;
- the link to ARCOS-1 provides seamless connectivity to US, parts of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America;
- satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2008)
Transportation
6 fieldsMerchant marine, 20 ships by typeone square, one ship
Airports by runway lengthpaved only
Airports by runway lengthunpaved only
Roadways
- total:
- 21,552 km
country comparison to the world: 108
- paved:
- 15,937 km (includes 33 km of expressways)
- unpaved:
- 5,615 km (2005)
Military
Jamaica Defense Force: Ground Forces, Coast Guard, Air Wing (2009)
6 fieldsMilitary service age and obligation
18 years of age for voluntary military service; younger recruits may be conscripted with parental consent (2001)
Transnational Issues
2 fieldsIllicit drugs
- transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North America and Europe;
- illicit cultivation and consumption of cannabis;
- government has an active manual cannabis eradication program;
- corruption is a major concern;
- substantial money-laundering activity;
- Colombian narcotics traffickers favor Jamaica for illicit financial transactions
Cite this entry
Central Intelligence Agency. “Jamaica.” The World Factbook 2009. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/jamaica/2009.