Migrants sent a record US$728.6 billion home to low- and middle-income countries in 2025, according to a UN International Fund for Agricultural Development report, with Latin America and the Caribbean posting the fastest regional growth of the past decade, remittances to the region surged 132 percent between 2016 and 2025, reaching US$168.6 billion last year.
Jamaica shared in that growth, but not at the regions pace. Net remittances reached a record US$3.49 billion in 2025, up 3.8 percent on the year before, according to Bank of Jamaica data reported by the Gleaner, with inflows continuing to climb into 2026 at roughly 4 to 5 percent year on year. Against the IFAD data, that puts Jamaica well behind the fastest-growing corridors in the hemisphere: El Salvador posted 19.2 percent growth and Guatemala 11.5 percent over a comparable period, more than double and triple Jamaicas pace respectively.
The scale still matters more than the growth rate for Jamaicas own economy. Remittances were equivalent to roughly 15.3 percent of GDP in 2024, exceeding both tourism receipts and foreign direct investment, and remain one of the countrys most significant sources of foreign exchange. The United States remains by far the largest source market for Jamaican remittances, which makes the flow more exposed to a single economys conditions than the more diversified corridors feeding some Central American countries.
The comparison raises a practical question for Jamaican policymakers rather than a cause for alarm: if remittance growth elsewhere is being driven partly by larger and more recently arrived migrant populations sending money home, Jamaicas comparatively established, longer-settled diaspora may simply be a more mature market with less room to accelerate, a different problem than a shrinking one, but one that puts more weight on converting existing remittance flows into investment rather than counting on the flow itself to keep growing at a Central American pace.
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