Data Collection for JSLC Begins August 4

Data collection for the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) will begin on August 4, 2025.

The announcement was made during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, held on July 31 at the agency, by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).

The JSLC, conducted annually since 1988, is Jamaica’s most comprehensive source of social data, informing the development and monitoring of national policies and programmes.

Director of Policy Research in the Social Policy Planning and Research Division at the PIOJ, Suzette Johnson, underscored the importance of the JSLC in shaping national policies.

“The JSLC is the result of collaboration between the Planning Institute of Jamaica and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, and it has been around since 1988. We have over 30 years of rich data to inform our policies and programmes. It covers a wide range of areas, ranging from population dynamics, poverty and vulnerability, health and education, social protection and housing-related matters,” Mrs. Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Director of Field Services at STATIN, Philone Mantock, emphasised the readiness of the field team to conduct the survey.

“Data collection for the survey is expected to start the 4th of August and continue for four months. We have a well-trained complemental field staff in addition to our permanent field staff, which is about 80 persons. We have contracted about 100 persons, interviewers and supervisors who will be fielding the survey,” Ms. Mantock explained.

“We’re going to a total of 12,000 dwellings across the entire island, covering all parishes. For each dwelling that we go to, the interviewers are assigned specific dwellings and they are to interview one household per dwelling,” she added.

Ms. Mantock reassured the public about the legitimacy and professionalism of the field staff. “Each member of the field team is issued a STATIN ID, so they have that for verification. If you are unsure that they’re a part of the survey, feel free to call our head office at (876) 630-1600 to confirm that they are part of the team,” she said.

For her part, Acting Unit Head in the Labour Market and Welfare Statistics Unit at STATIN, Nichole Allen, provided details on the type of data collected and how it is used to measure social progress.

“When an interviewer comes to a household and starts asking questions, the first thing that they’re going to ask is about the members of the household – who lives at the household, what is their age, their sex – so that we can get the demographic statistics that we need in order to disaggregate the indicators that we collect in the rest of the survey,” Ms. Allen said.

The PIOJ has reiterated the importance of participating in the survey, as the social policy is most effective when it is informed by good, credible data, in this case data from the JSLC.

“It is important that we are able to engage with the population, and we are so grateful that persons have taken the time to respond and contribute to the survey each year,” Ms. Allen said.

“The Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions is very important because the data that you share with us is used to inform the creation of these social policies that we need. Policies that impact the population at every level – children, youth, working class, the elderly – every segment of our population is impacted by the data that you provide for us,” she added.

The JSLC has been fielded annually with the exceptions of Population and Housing Census years (2011 and 2022).

Over the years, household-level data collected through this system has offered critical insights into key aspects of the population’s well-being, such as income, employment and consumption, alongside social indicators, including education, health, housing conditions and social protection programmes.