The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) says Jamaica’s population is not likely to exceed three million, based on the reduction in current fertility rates, high external migration, and declining mortality.

The institute is asserting that Jamaica’s population is not growing out of control.

PIOJ’s manager of population, Toni-Shae Freckleton says the view is supported by data from the population and housing census and projections coming out of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.

She notes that Jamaica’s population is ageing, with a decline in fertility rates, causing the 0-14 age group of the population to fall below 30 per cent.

She says along with that, is an increase in the working age population, the 15-64 age range.

Freckleton also says there is an increase in the over 60 age group, which is the fastest growing segment of the population and that this is a direct result of improvements in life expectancy and health care.

She says the total fertility rates have declined from an average high of six children per woman in the 1960’s to 2.4 children per woman in the last Reproductive Health Survey of 2008.

According to the PIOJ official, Jamaica has reaped the benefits of the Two is Better Than Too Many campaign in the 1980’s, noting that the drive has impacted current declining fertility rates.