Jamaica records historic low in poverty rate at 8.2% in 2023

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.”