Jamaica’s perennial mass exodus of top professionals and experts looking for work overseas has landed the island in second place on the human and flight and brain drain index.
As an increasing number of citizens flee a mix of low-paying salaries, few development opportunities and the psychosocial implications of a high prevalence of crime and violence, Jamaica’s most talented minds are pursuing careers off island in high numbers. Jamaica’s nurses are one of the highest professions that move abroad.
Jamaica ranked second behind only Samoa, which received a ten on the list of 177 countries compiled by research site TheGlobalEconomy.com. The index ranks countries based on data collected between 2007 and 2022, with zero being the lowest score and ten being the highest.
Jamaica has a human flight and brain drain index score of 9.1. The data comes from a wide range of sources, including national authorities, the World Bank, United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund.
Elsewhere on the index, Palestine placed third with a score of 8.8, while Micronesia and Somalia rounded out the top five with a similar score of 8.7 index points.
Haiti and Guyana were the only other Caribbean nations in the top 10, being ranked in ninth and tenth place respectively. Haiti scored 8.2 index points, while Guyana received 8.1 although with its newly found oil wealth, the country is likely to see that exodus decrease.
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