Who is the New Jamaican?

Who is the New Jamaican?

March 2, 2013

Thanks to photographers, playwrights and poets several of our creative people have defined for us pre-independence Jamaicans in a particular kind of way - rural, hardworking, friendly, godfearing.

The locally produced movie, The Harder they Come showed a grittier lifestyle of the 1970s. Later, in the 1980s, reggae music exported the mystic side of the culture.

Athletic prowess defined us as sprinters of class, brilliantly defined by runners in this era that is dominated by Usain Bolt. Most recently, an international video commercial provided fodder for public discussion on matters related to what it means to be Jamaican. This was the first ad that positioned Jamaican culture outside of tourism, entertainment and sports and into a modern business environment.

If we were to use Jamaican pop culture today, who is the Jamaican that emerges? After a listening session of radio stations, flipping through the society pages in the newspapers and sitting through theatrical content, a possible view of a Jamaican might be: a confident, fun loving, young, energetic person who is ambitious, highly motivated and keen to enjoy the best of life. Of course, analysis of data gathered by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) would be a better foundation on which to answer the question, Who is the new Jamaican?

To help practitioners to think through this matter, Director General of STATIN Sonia Jackson made a recent presentation to public sector communicators on some of the findings of the 2011 Population and Housing Census.

Her address on February 28 highlighted the relevance of carefully gathered data to the process of forming national policies and plans. The most obvious is to ensure that there are sufficient services for future populations.

In her presentation, Ms Jackson showed that the median age of a resident of Jamaica is now 27 years, and that the birth rate is expected to continue to fall and that the population will continue to age. Also confirmed is that the urbanisation trend continues, and now 54% of residents live in an urban centre. (STATIN defines an urban settlement as one with more than 2,000 persons with amenities that cater to a modern lifestyle).

The Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMR) continues to dominate, as 21% of the population live in the KMR.

Despite the wealth of churches and other religions in Jamaica, a total of 21.2% of the population did not declare a religious affiliation - an opportunity for targeted evangelism?. 

Other matters that will be relevant to the communicator is that more than 600,000 members of the labour force declared that they did not have any form of education. Telephone (land or cell) access within households was 94.04%; while households with Computers and Internet Connection was 26.69%. 

Despite emigration of persons from Jamaica, there was a net migration into the country. 

PRSJ Editor's profile Unrelated to the direct presentation of STATIIN, but based on readings of their findings, we would like to make a very loose sketch of who could be this new Jamaican.

The New Jamaican can be a male or a female and is a few years younger or older than 27 years with an affiliation to a Christian denomination. That person is living a modern lifestyle in a private dwelling in an urban area. The home would probably not have a land telephone line, computer or Internet, but the person would have at least one cell phone. If this young person is a woman, she would probably have no more than three children in her lifetime.

The July 2012 Labour Force survey shows that if this young person is in the labour force, there is roughly a 50/50 chance that he or she will have no declared educational achievement - but nevertheless might be skilled in his or her their area of work. If this 27ish person has a university degree and is in the labour force, he or she might well be employed in the public sector, in education, or in finance and real estate.

Such a profile suggests an individual skilled and/or educated could be someone who has great expectations for the future based on his or her urban lifestyle. The person would have been sufficiently exposed by a regulated but free media in order to make informed decisions towards achieving personal goals. Our conclusion is that this persons sounds like an individual whose citizenship would be a benefit to any nation on earth.

There is much information in the STATIN census that can be extracted to inform communications programmes. Below are some STATIN tables from the Director General's presentation.