Jamaica’s poverty rate fell to a record low of 8.2 percent in 2023, marking the lowest level since such data has been recorded on the island starting in 1989.
This represents a 50.8 percent decrease from the 16.7 percent recorded in 2021, a significant turnaround attributed to a strong post-pandemic economic rebound.
The data, presented by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) at its quarterly media briefing, was drawn from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) compiled by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry credited the decline to a combination of factors, including increased employment, an 85.7 percent rise in the national minimum wage, strengthened social protection programmes, and robust remittance inflows, which support nearly half of all Jamaican households.
“In addition to this decline in poverty, there was also a reduction in food poverty also referred to as extreme poverty. In 2023 the food poverty rate fell to 2.8 percent down from 5.8 percent in 2021 and 4 percent in 2019, also marking the lowest level on record,” said Henry. He further explained that “in the Jamaican context, food poverty refers to the inability of a household to afford the minimum daily caloric intake required for good health.”
Henry noted that no data was collected in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted field operations, and reminded that the 2018 revision of JSLC’s sampling and weighting methodologies means only data from 2012 onward should be compared. “While the trend in poverty reduction remains clear and credible, comparisons across years, particularly with pre-revision estimates, should be interpreted with caution,” he said.
The 2023 data reflects gains across all regions. In the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area (GKMA), poverty declined from 10.4 percent in 2021 to 3 percent in 2023. Henry did caution, however, that this figure shows “high variability around this estimate” and should be “interpreted with some caution.”
In other urban centres (OUC), poverty fell to 9 percent, down from 15.5 percent in 2021, reversing the upward trend observed since 2018. Rural areas, which historically record the highest levels of poverty, saw a significant drop from 22.1 percent to 11.5 percent—a decrease of more than 10 percentage points.
There were also notable increases in real per capita consumption, particularly among the lowest 40 percent of earners. Consumption rose by 12 percent in the first quintile and 16.6 percent in the second quintile, according to Henry.
Henry concluded that the progress shown in 2023 “shows potential for sustained reduction [in poverty] with the implementation of key policies and programmes,” and noted that the estimate for 2024 will be released later this year once new JSLC data is received from STATIN.
