This document compares population growth in Jamaica and India. It discusses factors influencing growth such as birth rates, death rates, and migration. In Jamaica, birth and fertility rates have decreased in recent decades due to more career-focused women, birth control availability, and emigration exceeding immigration. In India, high poverty rates, religious beliefs encouraging large families, and decreasing death rates have contributed to continued population growth, despite some emigration.

1. Comparing Jamaica with India
Farah Christian
Factors Influencing
Population Growth

2. What is Population Growth?
 An increase in the number of people that
reside in a country, state, county, or city.
 To determine whether there has
been population growth, the following
formula is used:
(birth rate + immigration) - (death rate + emigration)
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/population-growth.html

3. Factors Influencing Population
Growth

4. Caribbean Population Characteristics
 The current population
of Caribbean is 44,189,403 as of Friday,
August 17, 2018, based on the latest
United Nations estimates.
 Caribbean population is equivalent
to 0.58% of the total world population.
 Caribbean ranks number 3 in Latin
America and the Caribbean among sub-
regions ranked by population.
 Source: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/caribbean-population/

5. Caribbean Population Characteristics
 The population density in Caribbean is
195 per Km2 (506 people per mi2).
 The total land area is 225,996 Km2
(87,258 sq. miles)
 71.5 % of the population
is urban (31,555,780 people in 2018).
 The median age in Caribbean is 30.6
years.
 Source: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/caribbean-population/

6. Caribbean
Population
Characteristics
Year Population
2018 44,155,323
2017 43,883,319
2016 43,601,839
2015 43,309,611
2010 41,724,731
2005 40,115,790
2000 38,403,986
1995 36,423,237
1990 34,237,274
1985 31,948,027
1980 29,772,038
1975 27,641,021
1970 25,309,989
1965 23,082,713
1960 20,722,931
1955 18,796,503
Source: Worldometers (www.Worldometers.info)Elaboration of data by United Nations, Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision. (Medium-fertility variant).
• The table reflects
Caribbean population for
selected years since
1955.
• What is the difference in
population between
1955 and 2018?
• Estimate the rate of
growth for the region

7. Caribbean Population Characteristics
 According to the World Bank, the fastest-
growing population in the region is one of the
tiniest: the Turks and Caicos Islands, which has
seen an average annual growth of 4.5 percent
from 2000 to 2012.
 Second was the Cayman Islands, which saw an
average annual growth rate of 2.7 percent from
2000 to 2012
.
 Among sovereign Caribbean countries, it’s
Belize that has the highest growth rate, at 2.6
percent, followed by the Bahamas at 1.9
percent.

8. Comparing the Caribbean with
India & China
Population
Characteristics
The Caribbean India China
Jamaica Barbados
Total Population
(2018)
2,899,789 286,436 1, 356, 015,
189
1,415,774,544
Growth Rate 0.29% 0.23% 1.11% 0.39%
Birth Rate
(per 1000) 18 12 19 12
Death Rate
(per 1000) 7 9 7 8
Net Migration - 4 0 0 0
NOTE
Net Migration - The difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per
1,000 persons.
(An excess of persons entering the country is referred to as net immigration (e.g., 3.56 migrants/1,000 population);
an excess of persons leaving the country as net emigration (e.g., -9.26 migrants/1,000 population).

10. Factors
Influencing
Growth in the
Caribbean:
Case Study,
Jamaica

11. Jamaica
 The population of Jamaica
increased rapidly in the 1900’s
but in recent times, the rate of
growth has decreased. Though
the population is still growing, it
is not growing as quickly as it
was in past decades.
 population growth in Jamaica
has generally been on the
decline for some time. In the
early 1980’s the population
growth rate was almost two
percent but by 2011, the rate
had dropped to about a quarter
of one percent

12. Jamaica
 The fertility rate has decreased drastically in the last
few decades . The birth rate has also decreased. The
decrease in the birth and fertility rates has a negative
effect on the rate of population growth. The number of
women of child bearing has increased but the number
of babies being born each year has dropped
 The fertility and birth rates have decreased partly
because:
- more women now pursue careers and thus delay
childbearing
- birth control is more readily available
- planned parenthood efforts from the 1990s; the “two is
better than too many” campaign has been maintained

13. Jamaica
 Life expectancy has increased and infant
mortality has decreased as a result of
improvements in living conditions and medical
care. This will tend to have a positive effect on
the rate of population growth.
 There is a significant outflow of migrants to
the USA, Canada, Britain and other
Caribbean territories. There is a much smaller
number of people moving into Jamaica from
other countries. Since emigration is greater
than immigration, this will have a negative
effect on population growth.

14. INDIA
Reasons for
Increase in
Population

15. Birth Rate
1. Poverty
 According to ABC News, India currently faces
approximately “… 33 births a minute, 2,000 an hour,
48,000 a day, which calculates to nearly 12 million a
year”.
 India currently faces a vicious cycle of population
explosion and poverty. One of the most important
reasons for this population increase in India is poverty.
According to Geography.com, “More than 300 million
Indians earn less than US $1 everyday and about 130
million people are jobless.”
 Also, due to poverty, the infant mortality rate among
such families is higher due to the lack of facilities like
food and medical resources. Thus, they produce more

16. Birth Rate
 2. Religious Beliefs
 India’s culture runs very deep and far back in history. Due
to the increased population, the educational facilities are
very scarce. As a result, most people still strictly follow
ancient beliefs.
 According to ABC News, the famous Indian author,
Shobha De said, “God said ‘Go forth and produce’ and we
just went ahead and did exactly that.” In addition, a lot of
families prefer having a son rather than a daughter.
 As a result, a lot of families have more children than they
actually want or can afford, resulting in increased poverty,
lack of resources, and most importantly, an increased
population. Another one of India’s’ cultural norms is for a
girl to get married at an early-age. In most of the rural

17. Death Rate
 Although poverty has increased and the development
of the country continues to be hampered, the
improvements in medical facilities have been
tremendous. This improvement might be considered
positive, but as far as population increase is
considered, it has only been positive in terms of
increasing the population further.
 This development is good for the economy and
society of India, but strictly in terms of population, this
advancement has further enhanced the increase in
population.
 The average life expectancy of people in India has
increased from 52.9 in 1975-1930 to 62.4 in 1995-
2000.

18. Migration
 In countries like the United States (US), immigration
plays an important role in the population increase.
However, in countries like India, immigration plays a
very small role in the population change. Although
people from neighbouring countries like
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal migrate to India; at
the same time Indians migrate to other countries like
the US, Australia, and the UK
 During the 1971 war between India and Pakistan
over Bangladesh, the immigration rate increased
tremendously.
 However, currently the migration in India is -0.08
migrants per 1000 population and is decreasing
further. This is definitely good for India. This way, the
population might eventually come close to being
under control and more people may get better job

19. References
 Carib Journal (2013). The Caribbean’s Fastest and Slowest-growing
Populations. Retrieved from
https://www.caribjournal.com/2013/11/18/the-caribbeans-fastest-and-
slowest-growing-populations/#
 Geoforcxc. (2016). Population Growth in Jamaica. Retrieved from
https://www.geoforcxc.com/population/case-study-jamaica/
 Index Mundi. (2018) Thematic Maps. Retrieved August 18, 2018 from
https://www.indexmundi.com/map/?t=0&v=27&r=as&l=en
 Puja Mondal (n.d.). Factors Influencing Growth Pattern of Population in
India. Retrieved from
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/population/factors-influencing-growth-
pattern-of-population-in-india/39538
 World Population Review. (2018) Retrieved August 18, 2018 from
http://worldpopulationreview.com/