Urban/Economic Geography of Jamaica

Urban Geography

Jamaica consisted of approximately 52% urban population in 2010. Jamaica is mostly city or town.  A majority of Jamaicans—54.7 percent— lived in urban areas in 1997, up more than 10 percent from 1975; it is expected that by 2015 more than 63 percent of the population will live in urban areas. The capital city of Kingston and its suburbs are home to the largest number of Jamaicans.     


Jamaican Economy

Jamaican have the opportunity to earn money thru the following sectors of their economy such tourism, agriculture, Mining and manufacturing, banking and foreign trade, transportation and communications.



The economy of Jamaica is largely dependent on industrial sectors like agriculture, mining, tourism, oil refining, sugar, cement, chemicals, tobacco processing, textiles, flour milling, processed foods and others.

Bauxite and alumina, raw materials used in the production of aluminum, are the country's main exports. During the 1960s Jamaica was the world's largest producer of bauxite, a position it held until the 1980s. Today, Jamaica is the world's third largest producer of bauxite, after Australia and Guinea, and has estimated reserves of more than 1.9 billion metric tons. The majority of the bauxite exported from Jamaica is first converted into alumina, though roughly 30 percent of bauxite is exported in its raw form.

In 2009, the median income level in Jamaica is $4590US$/capita, with 18.7% of the population below poverty level. When it comes to wealth, Jamaica is a land of extremes. On the northern coast—home to tourism—and in the suburbs of Kingston, wealthy Jamaicans live in first-rate housing, visit shopping centers featuring the best imported goods, and enjoy an elevated standard of living. Living in such suburbs as Cherry Gardens, Arcadia Gardens, and Forest Hills, the wealthy send their children to private schools and to universities abroad, and employ private security forces. Yet not far from these wealthy enclaves a significant number of poor Jamaicans live in squalor, with poor housing, limited food supply, and inadequate access to clean water, quality health care, or education. Kingston's poor congregate in the slum districts of Trench Town, Jones Town, and Denham Town, where water supplies are often polluted and violent youth gangs clash with police for control of the streets.  The wealth is distributed largely along racial lines, reflecting Jamaica's slave-plantation heritage. The descendants of black slaves tend to be among the poorest classes in Jamaica, while white and mixed-race descendants of plantation owners and traders tend to be better off.


Jamaica's rural poor also face difficult circumstances, for many workers must try to grow their own crops or participate in the informal economy —in some cases, the drug trade—in order to survive. Both the rural and urban poor have suffered from the long decline in the quality of social services provided to Jamaicans.