Tropical Storm Nicole - Planning Institute of Jamaica

Poverty
Generally, there is a direct relationship between the extent of disaster impact and the poverty
status of residents, with the poor being more likely to be severely impacted than their
wealthier counterparts. The prevalence of poverty for Jamaica in 2007 was 9.9 per cent
(JSLC 2007). The majority of persons (71.3 per cent) classified as poor were located in the
Rural Areas which account for 48 per cent of the total population. The areas most affected
by the event were located in rural areas and this could suggest that those most severely
affected were the poor. To examine this assumption, the areas most affected were overlaid
on the most recent Poverty Maps. (See Figure 9 which displays the geographic distribution
of poverty using the latest poverty maps). The analysis suggests that with the exception of a
few communities, the areas most impacted by the storm were not among the poorest.
However, the vulnerability of these communities may be due to their location in areas
susceptible to landslides and flooding, and in some cases, they represent pockets of poverty
in areas indicated as having low percentages of persons below the poverty line.
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