The recently released data 2014 World’s Development report ranks Jamaica as the 2nd poorest country in the Caribbean in terms of Gross National Income per captia. I have taken the data and broken out the data to show countries from the english speaking Caribbean and was not surprised to see the levels to which this once wealthy country has sunk.
| Ranking | Country | GNI US$ |
| 1 | The Bahamas | 21,280.00 |
| 2 | Trinidad and Tobago | 14,400.00 |
| 3 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 13,330.00 |
| 4 | Antigua and Barbuda | 12,640.00 |
| 5 | Barbados | 12,616.00 |
| 6 | Grenada | 7,110.00 |
| 7 | Saint Lucia | 6,530.00 |
| 8 | Dominica | 6,460.00 |
| 9 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 6,380.00 |
| 10 | Jamaica | 5,140.00 |
| 11 | Guyana | 3,140.00 |
Now the full data can be accessed here.
Filed under: Economics |
Warren's Blog 
Can you say where we were between 2008 and 2911? Would sort of show a trend of where we are going.
It would be better to show where everyone (including Belize!) was in 1950.
Because wealth is relative. We could have the same GNI from the 1940s and have been “rich” then if the others were “poorer” than us, but if they caught up and moved past us then we would have remained stuck while they advanced, rather than us having “sunk” as he writes.
Dat list look well short enuh…..
Whe Belize?
According to that link Belize GNI per capita is $4,180.00
And how yuh leave out Cayman, Bermuda – $106,920 (dem is Caribbean even if dem doan waan believe it), Turks and Caicos, Virgin Islands (both of dem) and Sint Maarten?
Hell, even Suriname ($8,480) coulda probably mek di list of “English speaking Caribbean” since they speak enuff English there.
@KSmith.the list reflects the GDP per capita of English Speaking Caricom countries
Belize is an English speaking CARICOM country. And in Suriname (another CARICOM country) English is fairly widespread.
Plus all of the other places I listed are associates of CARICOM.
In any case, di man did NOT say this is a list of English speaking Caricom countries. He said it is a list of English speaking Caribbean countries. See the difference? Caricom =/= Caribbean. Caricom is a subset group within the Caribbean.
Either way di man did forget Belize!
And I would still root for including Suriname and the others in that list.
So when all is said and done, whether English, Dutch or Chinese, how does that impact on the rating for Jamaica? We are still near the bottom of the list. Any list!
Well firstly it impacts the title of his post. It would have to be “Jamaica is the 3rd poorest country in the English speaking Caribbean” if you he actually included poor likkle Belize.
Secondly, it’s just damn sloppy.
According to the World Bank, Jamaica has the lowest per capita in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Institutional failure should be blamed for Jamaica’s underdevelopment
No surprise…
The conclusion based on per capita GNI may be faulty. China’s and Brazil’s could well be lower or in the same range but that doesn’t make those countries poor. It’d be useful to get a proper socioeconomic analysis than to just jump to what could be incorrect conclusions.