A year after Hurricane Melissa came ashore near New Hope as the strongest storm ever to strike Jamaica directly, the official figures describe a country that was knocked hard and is climbing back, but unevenly, and not yet to where it stood before 28 October 2025.
The economy is still smaller than it was a year ago. The money Jamaicans abroad send home has rarely been higher. The population is barely growing. And some long-running national questions, from the republic to the shape of the island’s faith, remain unsettled. Jamaica Homes has brought the latest figures together in a new reference guide, Religion, People and Economy of Jamaica; this is what they show.
An economy shrinking more slowly
Before the storm, Jamaica was having a good year: output in the July–September 2025 quarter was about 5% higher than a year earlier. Then the floor fell away. A World Bank-coordinated assessment put Melissa’s damage at about US$8.8 billion, roughly 41% of the country’s 2024 GDP, and the economy shrank 7.1% in October–December 2025.
Each quarter since has been less bad. The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) estimates a 5.9% contraction in January–March 2026 and 2.9% in April–June. In August the PIOJ shortened its recovery timeline, saying output could be back to pre-storm levels as early as the April–June quarter of 2027. In September, Finance Minister Fayval Williams said the recovery was running about 18 months ahead of schedule.
The averages hide sharp differences. In the June quarter, mining was still down almost a quarter and alumina output down 30.8%, while hotels and restaurants were 12.2% below last year. Construction, on the other hand, edged up, and cement production jumped 56.8% as families and businesses rebuilt.
The diaspora holds the line
Remittances reached US$3.49 billion in 2025, according to the Bank of Jamaica, the second-highest total on record and about 15% of GDP. Two-thirds of that money comes from the United States. Tourism, the biggest foreign-exchange earner, is still recovering: visitors to the end of August 2026 were 17% below the same period of 2025, with more than 11,000 hotel rooms due to return over 2026 and 2027. Full figures are on our remittances and tourism pages.
Fewer jobs, smaller labour force
Unemployment remains low by historical standards, but it has risen, from 3.3% in October 2025 to 3.7% in April 2026. STATIN’s July survey counted 1.419 million people in work, 21,900 fewer than a year earlier, and many people in the hurricane parishes have stopped looking for work altogether.
A population barely growing
The 2022 census, finally published in October 2025, counted 2,774,538 people, just 2.8% more than in 2011. STATIN says that is the slowest growth since 1970, with births falling, deaths rising and Jamaicans still leaving. See population by parish for where growth is concentrated.
Faith in flux
Religion figures from the 2022 census have still not been released, so the 2011 count remains the latest: 68.9% Christian, with the Churches of God, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals together holding almost half the population, and 21.3% saying they had no religion. Melissa damaged or destroyed hundreds of churches in the west, many of which served as shelters. Our guide to religion in Jamaica charts the main groups.
The republic on hold
Politically, the Jamaica Labour Party won a third consecutive term on 3 September 2025, taking 34 seats to the People’s National Party’s 29. The bill to replace King Charles III with a Jamaican president, tabled in December 2024, has stalled, chiefly over whether the Caribbean Court of Justice should replace the Privy Council at the same time. In June Justice Minister Delroy Chuck called for the process to restart.
What it means for homes
[EDITOR: add Jamaica Homes perspective here, e.g. rebuilding costs, insurance, overseas buyers and prices in the western parishes.]
For the full picture, with charts on growth, remittances, population and religion, a timeline from the Taíno to today and the latest figures on government and culture, read Religion, People and Economy of Jamaica: The Living Guide. The guide is rebuilt every October.
Sources: Planning Institute of Jamaica (May and August 2026); STATIN quarterly GDP, Labour Force Surveys and 2022 census; Bank of Jamaica Remittance Bulletin (December 2025); Ministry of Tourism; Jamaica Information Service; The Gleaner; Jamaica Observer.
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