Jamaica

PAHO Core Indicators 2025: Health Trends in the Americas, shows the following about Jamaica’s health profile:

• Life expectancy for men is 69.1 years for men and 74.1 years for women
• The adolescent fertility rate is 36.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19 years
• 54.0 percent of people living with HIV receive antiretroviral therapy (ART)
• 5.1 percent of children under age five are overweight
• The incidence of congenital syphilis is 0.4 cases per 1,000 live births

PAHO’s strategic health priorities for Jamaica are outlined in the organization’s Country Cooperation Strategy (2025-2030); they include:

• Accelerate the primary health care reform, while expanding stewardship and governance to advance universal health access and coverage
• Increase the capacity of human resources for health to achieve resilient health systems aligned to the model of care
• Strengthen the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and conditions and their risk factors
• Promote intersectoral action and health promotion to address social determinants of health as well as prevent and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with communicable disease
• Strengthen health emergencies preparedness and risk reduction and management for a disaster-resilient health sector, utilizing a multi-hazard approach

Similarly, the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ key priorities are included within their Vision 2030 for Health (2019 -2030). The high impact goals outlined in the strategic plan are as follows:

• Ensure a safe and a healthy start for newborns and infants
• Improve the health of the population with an emphasis on reducing mortality, morbidity and disability related to NCDs and their risk factors
• Reduce mortality, morbidity and disability due to communicable diseases
• Reduce mortality, morbidity and disability due to poor quality of health care
• Eliminate priority communicable diseases, including AIDS, tuberculosis, mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and congenital syphilis
• Eliminate neglected infectious diseases as public health problems
• Reduce the number of cases of death, disability and illness, with emphasis on protection of the poor and vulnerable populations affected by emergencies and disasters

Jamaica’s estimated population in 2019 was 2.9 million with a median age of 30 years.