PIOJ To Generate Poverty Maps Using 2025 Jamaica Survey Of Living Conditions Data

The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) has announced that data from the 2025 Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions (JSLC) will be used to generate poverty maps.

These are intended to provide deeper insights into living standards and socioeconomic vulnerabilities across communities.

Director of Policy Research in the PIOJ’s Social Policy Planning and Research Division, Suzette Johnson, told JIS News that the 2025 JSLC is significantly larger than in previous years.

“For 2025… we’re targeting 12,000 households. So what this Survey will allow us to do, in collaboration with data from the census, is to prepare poverty maps,” she said.

Ms. Johnson explained that the maps will provide estimates of poverty at the community level.

“Usually, the report would limit, in terms of the geographical distribution. We would be able to limit our analysis to the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area (GKMA), other urban centres, and rural areas. But citizens’ participation in the large sample survey that is out will help us to produce poverty numbers at the community level, and this is critical for targeting,” she emphasised.

Ms. Johnson added that the poverty maps will also support national development initiatives.

“We are aware of the Community Renewal Programme, as an example where the targeting is also based on the poverty levels… the levels of vulnerability and volatility that exist in our communities. The data will contribute to processes like those,” she said.

For her part, Director of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica’s (STATIN) Field Services Division, Philone Mantock, emphasised that the initiative’s success depends on strong public participation.

“We can only get poverty maps if we get at least an 80 to 90 per cent response rate. So although we’re targeting the 12,000 dwellings, we have to get persons answering because, usually with the small sample, it’s about 3,000-plus dwellings. So it’s a massive increase this year,” she said.

Established in 1988, the JSLC plays a pivotal role in monitoring the quality, reach, and effectiveness of Jamaica’s social services.

It provides baseline data essential for setting socio-economic policy priorities and offers valuable feedback on the effectiveness of existing policies.

This enables timely corrective action and supports evidence-based decision-making across sectors.

Data collection for 2025 commenced on August 4 and will continue over a four-month period.