[Jamaica] Survey shows poverty decline

from The Jamaica Observer

THE 2005 Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions, tabled in Parliament yesterday by Finance Minister Omar Davies, showed that poverty declined last year, when compared to the previous year.

The survey, a joint publication by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), said "the incidence of poverty declined by 2.1 percentage points to 14.8 per cent" over the 2004 figure.

According to the survey, between 1995 and 2005 the poverty level declined by nearly half (12.7) from 27.5 per cent. This has not been a steady fall, however, since there was a 2.8 percentage increase between 1998 and 2000, and 2001 and 2002. Since that time, however, lower poverty levels have been recorded, the document said.

The study showed that the decline was greatest within the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) - Kingston and St Andrew, Portmore and Spanish Town. The 2005 figure for the KMA was 9.6 per cent, 4.7 percentage points less than the corresponding period, while other towns fell by 0.6 percentage points and rural areas by 0.1 percentage points to 7.2 per cent and 21.1 per cent, respectively.