ACOG - Jamaica  - IBM

Geography

Location: Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba

Area:
total area: 10,990 sq km
land area: 10,830 sq km
comparative area: slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 1,022 km


People

Population: 2,574,291 (July 1995 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 33% (female 412,565; male 431,043)
15-64 years: 60% (female 786,700; male 770,681)
65 years and over: 7% (female 96,348; male 76,954)

Population growth rate: 0.78% (1995 est.)

Birth rate: 22.03 births/1,000 population

Death rate: 5.62 deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate: -8.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Infant mortality rate: 16.1 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 74.65 years
male: 72.39 years
female: 77.01 years

Total fertility rate: 2.42 children born/woman

Ethnic divisions: African 76.3%, Afro-European 15.1%, East Indian and Afro-East Indian3%, white 3.2%, Chinese and Afro-Chinese 1.2%, other 1.2%

Religions: Protestant 55.9% (Church of God 18.4%, Baptist 10%, Anglican 7.1%, Seventh-Day Adventist 6.9%, Pentecostal 5.2%, Methodist 3.1%, United Church 2.7%, other 2.5%), Roman Catholic 5%, other, including some spiritual cults 39.1% (1982)

Languages: English, Creole

Literacy: age 15 and over has ever attended school (1987)
total population: 82%
male: 77%
female: 86%


Government

Names:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Jamaica

Type: parliamentary democracy

Capital: Kingston

Independence: 6 August 1962 (from UK)

Constitution: 6 August 1962


Economy

National product: GDP - purchasing power parity - $7.8 billion

National product real growth rate: 2%

National product per capita: $3,050

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 26.7%

Unemployment rate: 15.7%

Electricity:
capacity: 730,000 kW
production: 2.6 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 988 kWh



Olympic Factoid
Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Games involved a crew of 2,100 who worked with more than 3,500 performers as well as thousands of athletes who celebrated on the field of Olympic Stadium.