Jamaica saw a historic drop in poverty in 2023, with both general and food poverty rates falling by more than half — marking the lowest levels recorded since official tracking began in 1989.

The latest data coming out of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) based on the official poverty prevalence estimates for 2023, computed from the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) saw the country’s poverty level falling from 16.7 per cent in 2021 to 8.2 per cent in 2023.

No estimate was available for 2022, as the JSLC was not conducted that year due to the initiation of the National Population and Housing Census. The poverty data for 2024 is, however, to be made available sometime later this year when it is received from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin).

PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry, speaking at a quarterly press briefing on Wednesday, attributed the poverty decline to the country’s full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its entry into a new phase of economic growth. Other contributing factors, he said, included increased employment, expanded output across nine of 12 industries, stronger external demand for services, and robust remittance inflows. These developments boosted household income and lifted many Jamaicans above the poverty line.

The reduction was further supported by improved macro-economic stability, a compounded 85.7 per cent increase in the national minimum wage over the two-year period, as well as strengthened social protection programmes delivered through the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), the Social Pension Programme, Poor Relief Programme and other targeted interventions aimed at generating youth employment and encouraging small-scale agriculture.

“These developments meant that many low-income earners saw real improvements in their standard of living, lifting many above the poverty line,” the director general also said.

In 2012, poverty in Jamaica measured 19.7 per cent which, at that time, meant that nearly one in every five Jamaican was consuming below the poverty line. Since then, the rates have trended downwards except for a spike in 2021 when it rose to 16.7 per cent mainly due to adverse effects of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, hailing the latest outturn as a “remarkable reduction”, said it comes as a direct result of deliberate policy measures implemented to empower Jamaicans through economic opportunity, education, skills training and social support.

“We have stabilised the economy after COVID-19 and now we have created an environment where more Jamaicans are participating in economic activity and moving towards true independence. While we celebrate this historic achievement we recognise that there is more work to be done. Our mission is to ensure that every Jamaican, especially our most vulnerable, has access to opportunities and pathways to prosperity. We will continue to invest in our people and our institutions to secure a brighter future for every Jamaican,” he said in statement on Wednesday.

In 2023, the food poverty rate, which also dropped by almost 52 per cent, moved from 5.8 per cent in 2021 to a record low of 2.8 per cent. The rate stood at four per cent pre-COVID. Food poverty or extreme poverty, in the Jamaican context, largely refers to the inability of a household to afford the minimum daily caloric intake required for good health.

Responding to a query from the Jamaica Observer about what the reduced numbers meant for nutritional consumption and hunger implications, PIOJ Director of Policy Research Suzette Johnson said it indicated that “a smaller proportion of Jamaicans were unable to provide for their nutritional needs”, based on the improvements detected. She said that food and general poverty rates typically moved in tandem due to their close linkage.

The data on poverty, when disaggregated across regions, also showed wholesale improvements islandwide.

In the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, poverty fell from 10.4 per cent in 2021 to 3.0 per cent in 2023, though the estimate for this particular area, Henry said, may need to be reviewed with some caution due to high variability which may make it less precise than others. The rate for Other Urban Centres, however, declined, moving from 15.5 per cent in 2021 to 9.0 per cent — reversing its upward trend observed since 2018.

“In rural areas, which historically experience the highest rates of poverty, the rate dropped from 22.1 per cent to 11.5 per cent. This represents a decline of more than 10 percentage points,” Henry noted.

Importantly, a drop in inequality in 2023 also showed the Gini coefficient — the internationally accepted measure of inequality — moving from 0.3991 in 2021 to 0.3560 in 2023, the lowest since 2017.

Henry said the PIOJ, in anticipating sustained reduction of poverty, is now busy working to strengthen the tools needed to achieve local and international benchmarks. To this end, the entity has advanced work on a National Multidimensional Poverty Index which will be used to complement traditional monetary measures as it assesses other forms of deprivation, such as education, inadequate housing and poor health outcomes.

“The PIOJ will provide an update on this important measure in due course,” he noted.

The 2023 poverty rate coincides with record unemployment of 3.7 per cent up to January of this year and the return of economic growth at 0.8 per cent for the January to March period or first quarter of this calendar year.

The PIOJ, in presenting the preliminary estimates on gross domestic product performance over the three-month period, said the short-term outlook remains generally positive. Contingent on a few downside risks influenced by developments in the global space and potential weather shocks associated with the start of the hurricane season, the projection, the director general said, is for growth in the current April-June quarter to be within the range of 0.5 per cent — 1.5 per cent and 1.0 per cent — 2.0 per cent for fiscal year 2025/26.

“This is based on the expectation for continued recovery from the adverse effects of the various hydrological events which impacted the island during the latter half of 2024,” Henry added.

PIOJ Director General Dr Wayne Henry presenting the poverty 2023 data and review of the Jan-Mar economic performance at a quarterly briefing held virtually on Wednesday.