Jamaica's prime minister warns of 'social issue' as birth rate plunges

Jamaica's prime minister Andrew Holness has warned that the country is set to face a "serious social issue" as the birth rate continues to drop.

Key Takeaways:

• The birth rate in Jamaica is one of the lowest in the world.

• Holness said the birth rate has fallen by 24% since 2018 and warned that this will create major problems for the country's economy.

• Jamaica is on par with other nations experiencing crisis-level population decline, like China, Japan, Greece, Italy, and South Korea.

The Details:

Prime Minister Holness released a statement on X to address what he had been rumored to say about the country's falling birth rate, in an effort to set the record straight.

"It may shock you to learn that since 2018, our birth rate has fallen by 24 percent,” he said. "You need to be growing by at least 2.1% to be at replacement."

He then explained that while some assume the falling birth rate means less money can be allocated to things like education and pension services, it will have a negative effect on more than this. "It means less people to support the pension system which one day you will need the pension system to support you. It means less people available for the labour force," he said. “How are we going to grow?”

Andrew Holness

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There has been commentary circulating about what I said regarding Jamaica’s birth rate. Some of the commentary has been triggered by traditional and social media reports which are not accurate. Rather than relying on edited clips or third-party interpretations, I encourage

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9:08 PM · Feb 21, 2026

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He also suggested that people who have left Jamaica should return to start families and invest in their home. “We need to stimulate a net return, a net gain of talent back into Jamaica," he concluded. “We have to encourage Jamaicans overseas to come back here and help us to build here."

The Backstory:

Data from the 2025 State of World population report revealed that Jamaica's birth rate is among the lowest in the world. Currently, the birth rate is 1.3 per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. That puts Jamaica on par with other nations experiencing crisis-level population decline, like China, Japan, Greece, Italy, and South Korea.

One Jamaican doctor, Jackie Campbell, said many locals only want one child, and turn to abortion to avoid having more children:

I speak with my patients. I’m a family physician, and they will come in and they say, ‘Look here, Doc, I’m having one child. Children are expensive.’ Men say that to me. Women say that. And the next thing I think that we need to talk about – this is opening a bag of worms here – is the fact that more and more persons are coming to my office, and they are pregnant females, young females, and they are requesting terminations of the pregnancy. And I have to say to them that is not a service I offer.

Sociologist Georgia Crawford likewise said the crisis is so dire that the country may need to better enforce existing abortion laws.

“We might have to... really clamp down on the abortion clinics that we know exist, even though it’s illegal – because if we are facing a crisis, then you have to take bold steps," she said.

The Bottom Line:

Worldwide, falling fertility rates are causing economic crises. As decades of anti-child propaganda have firmly taken root, world leaders are scrambling to find a way to reverse the damaging trend and encourage people to embrace large families once again.