Caymanians fall as % of population

| 11/07/2016 | 61 Comments
Cayman News Service

Cayman Islands Department of Immigration

(CNS): The population of the Cayman Islands at the end of 2015 was 60,413, an increase of more than 2,000 people over the 2014 year-end figure, according to the latest government statistics. The increase was down to the arrival of more overseas workers, since the percentage of Caymanians fell from 57.4% to 56.7%, the lowest it has been for five years. The population statistics form part of the annual compendium for 2015, recently released by the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO).

The report showed that the resident birth rate fell last year from 12.5 in 2014 for every 1,000 people to 11 in 2015, but average life expectancy increased marginally and a female baby born last year can expect to live until they are 84.7 years old.

The compendium also reveals a fall in unemployment to 4.2% and an increase in the workforce from 37,723 in 2014 to 39,138 for 2015. Cayman also increased its online presence in 2015, with the number of internet connections rising by almost 4,000 — from 23,469 in 2014 to 27,383 last year.

Private sector schools saw an increase in their numbers during 2015 when compared to 2014. While the overall number of kids in primary and secondary schools increased overall by around 100 students, the numbers enrolled in government schools fell as more parents paid to send their children to school. There were 3,213 children enrolled in private schools last year from the total school population of 7,921 compared to 3,067 in 2014 from a population of 7,806.

Although enrolment at UCCI fell in 2015 compared to 2014 by over 30 students, the number of people studying overseas increased in 2015 by over 50 students and well over 200 students received scholarships for further education, the highest number since records on this began five years ago.

The statistics report also reveals that 3,685 crimes were reported and dealt with by the RCIPS, which was down by over 260, but their clear-up rate improved by 3%, as they solved almost half (48%) of the crimes compared with 45% in 2014. Road collisions were up in 2015 by one hundred compared to the previous year, with a significant increase in fatal road crashes from four in 2014 to 13 last year.

The courts remained busy, dealing with more than 9,500 cases in both the Summary and Grand courts. There was a significant jump, too, in the number of juveniles convicted of crimes in 2015 compared to the year before, with 64 young people between 11 and 18 facing criminal charges compared to 40 in 2014.

Meanwhile, the prison population was up marginally to 190 at the end of 2015 compared to 186 in 2014. More than three-quarters of inmates (147) were Caymanians, with just 43 foreign nationals incarcerated.

The full compendium, which can be viewed here, provides a wide collection of national statistics covering everything from agriculture and commerce to energy use and tourism.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: ,

Category: Local News

Comments (61)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. John says:

    Two years passed and about 2k people is gone.

  2. A concerned citizen. says:

    Why Don,t you all pool that energy together to help all camanians and caymanian passport holders to pull together and help each other instead of bitching all the time .
    It’s all smoke and mirrors.
    Whilst you argue the money gets diverted .why do you not demand full assistance for all permanent residents on the islands to allow for a better way of life for all.
    Start demanding more and acting as a team to help the young and old together.
    its not as if there is not enough money just tap into the billions of free flowing money going through your island every year.
    Your budget alone is over 1 billion dollars but over 1400 billion dollars a year to through you banking financial industry every year.

  3. Anonymous says:

    As I read all of the comments regarding this article, it leaves be to believe that unfortunately the term Caymanian has such a negative connotation attached to it. The truth of the matter is this: when persons speak of a Caymanian unfortunately that group includes the BOBO listed persons who gained Caymanian Status thanks to Mckeeva and the government at that time. Even though the government states that there is no distinction between a born Caymanian and a Status Holder, I personally beg to differ. So, until statistics can show me the true facts and numbers between these two groups of people, the term Caymanian will always carry the present negative image. These numbers and percentages that have been spurted out by the ESO after all are still just that – NUMBERS!!! I am a fifth generation Caymanian and no one will ever tell me that a Status Holder is equal to me and the generations of my family. Like the aftermaths of hurricanes, these same people will pick up and leave the islands so quickly when it is no longer ‘good’ for them and leave us the ‘True Born and Bred Caymanians’ to sort out the mess as always. Will it then be through such drastic situations that the ESO reports really paint the true picture?

    Is the next step, reservations??????

    • Anonymous says:

      “I am a fifth generation Caymanian and no one will ever tell me that a Status Holder is equal to me and the generations of my family. ”

      Wow. Just…wow. Caymankind at its best.

    • Anonymous says:

      You sir are a moron, it is the fact that you possess Caymanian Status that makes you a Caymanian.

    • Anonymous says:

      No I am not equal to you. Smarter, Richer, and Better looking for sure but not equal. Ever!

    • Anonymous says:

      Do you apply the same theory to other countries? Example, a fifth generation Canadian is more Canadian than a first generation Canadian or a second generation Canadian? I know a lot of Caymanians who moved to Canada or the US and now have citizenship in those countries. Are they not equal to the others in their new country?

    • Anonymous says:

      “I am a fifth generation Caymanian and no one will ever tell me that a Status Holder is equal to me and the generations of my family. ”

      In the grand scheme of things, this equates to the square root of f@@k all!
      It means nothing here or anywhere else, to no one,and is a true insight into the mentality and self inflated a@@holes that seem to be more prevalent by the day.
      It is equally sad that you have had to drag the generations of your family into this ego bender too as you will be sufficiently deflated to find out that nobody gives a rats ass who they are, what they did or how many donkeys they owned!

      Counselling is possibly the only way forward as something, somewhere went wrong in the past.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Public school until five o clock and run the place like a military camp will keep students busy and out of trouble.

    Mandatory daily running/push-ups/swimming never hurt anybody. Not saying the children are fat. mandatory diving certification and sea life preservation as part of the curriculum. Less need for expat dive masters. Plus then the children will understand why they shouldn’t over fish/take too many conch/lobsters etc.

    Enforce the dress code and have mandatory etiquette training to teach them to be ladies and gentlemen. We all know they aren’t getting it at home. As a country we want the best for the young generation. Well give them the best and it will produce results.

    • Anonymous says:

      What is wrong with you? Why is it public school kids? My friend, please read the news a little bit more often!! Have you not seen the kids who went away to build robots, the tourism ambassador of the Cayman Islands, and not to mention the kids this year who are representing Cayman in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association? They all have one thing in common – they are from PUBLIC SCHOOL! And from John Gray in that matter. I’m sure you went to private school or send your kids to private school so you never got the time to actually meet some of the kids who go there. YES, there are bad apples who go there – EVERY SCHOOL HAS THAT! I am sick and tired of reading these negative comments about public school children. You are IGNORANT!

  5. Anonymous says:

    What’s the problem? The number of foreign slaves has gone up. Caymanians don’t do those jobs.

    • B says:

      In the Cayman Islands, the majority of the foreign slaves are slaves to foreign owners. Soooo if you don’t want to be a slave in the Cayman Islands, please do what Barefoot Man says “Go Back where you came from!”. We have been sorting out our own crap for years and didn’t miss you then so I guess we can go back to that style of life and won’t miss you in the future. BYE!

  6. Anonymous says:

    @ Banana Boy – when they get status what do you think will happen then? When their kids then become born Caymanians, without Cayman customs what do you think will happen then? Then politicians will have to appeal more to foreigners than Caymanians.

    You are naïve and silly.

    • Banana Boy says:

      The current process for getting PR i.e. the first step in getting status is now so onerous that government are weeding out anyone who is not the best of the best (they havent even hear any applications in 2 years!). Getting this process right will ensure that new Caymanians are not only a good cultural fit but also a good for the economy and society in General. The issues of the past where huge amounts of those given status were not desireable is in the past. Lessons have been learned. I just don’t think we should get too worried about the population growing provided it is well controlled and will be to the benefit of Caymanians (otherwise whats the point in growing the economy? right?). Their is one thing I am sure of and that is that a growing economy and a growing population provides opportunity and provided we are educating our people appropriately Caymanians will be the net winners.

      There is too much emphasis put on how “perfect” Cayman used to be. This is total rubbish – in living memory Cayman was incredibly poor, men had to go to sea to make a living, their was no social service, poor health care and few jobs. All but the very few struggled to survive – somehow this is being mis-remembered as some kind of golden age. Now that is plain silly.

  7. Anonymous says:

    yes…some good news at last!…..

  8. Anonymous says:

    These are just numbers used for consideration. One such reason there are low number is that the local population are leaving to go to other countries for a better life. Just as the expats are coming to cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      Easily to the UK unlike us UK citizens coming here….as always double standards!

    • Anonymous says:

      Still 100% of the voting population.

      • Anonymous says:

        Suits me … That way you are 100 % to blame for the politicians and local politics.

        No blame or fault can be laid at the door of the furriner.
        That way, we can all stay uninterested in what happens in “politician camp” and the electorate get the “politicians” they deserve.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yep, scary isn’t it.

    • B says:

      Cause we can’t get anything here because our government has allowed foreigners to come in and get the jobs.

    • Anonymous says:

      I doubt it. It is difficult enough to get someone to move to a tellers position in the post office to serve someone, so getting them to move 5000 miles to look for work is not going to happen!

  9. Anonymous says:

    PPM at its finest! When one man one vote comes around people lets put “the truth” in. He’ll be revealed in due time, I’m so sick of these career politicians who have never been on the street level with the rest of us, yet the feel so confident in telling us THEIR plans to fix OUR problems! What a joke. Time for this establishment and all the blood suckers feeding off it to get out!

    Nothing wrong with foreigners but when they out number us its time to take a page out of the British referendum, throw out those who wish to impoverish and marginalize our kids.

    The truth!

    • Think of all possibilities says:

      Maybe properly educating your kids and keeping them from committing crimes is a better idea than keeping out hard-working foreign labor from making Cayman a nicer, more productive place to live. Just a thought.

    • Anonymous says:

      Here’s one ‘truth’ you missed, Caymanian’s are still the majority, and even if they were a minority, they are still the only one’s who can vote.

      • Anonymous says:

        That is fine by me. That way you can only be responsible for the ongoing sh$t show that is created and deserved.

    • anonymous says:

      The truth is that if the number of Caymanians is above 50% they remain a majority. Kids will have a better future with a sound education and excellent attitudes towards work, discipline and self development. Failure of parent(s) rather than foreigners are the real cause of damage, alongside over sexualisation, drug usage, abuse and neglect, and all the other issues raised in the report of such things that was sat on from an international group about three years ago. Whilst the focus stays on foreign worker numbers, homosexual relationships, and similar points the real issues that affect a large proportion of Caymanian society continue to be ignored by almost all sectors of society, including politicians and electorate. That is why it is not being addressed as the growing emergency it really is, and it has been growing for over twenty years.

  10. Last Resort says:

    The only long term hope for Caymanians is to remain the “biggest minority” in the country.

    The big mistake over the past four decades has been to allow Jamaicans to become the second largest demographic group as that has had an extremely negative cultural impact.

    Cayman ain’t what it used to be and, despite what the more nationalistic politicians will tell you, the threat is not from lawyers, bankers and accountants.

    The work permit approach needs to promote diversity over the convenience of hiring low wage earners from the most violent country in the Caribbean.

    • WhaYaSay! says:

      The work permit situation needs to change completely and make the permit holder the owner of it. This will allow the permit holder to “job hop” (within their area) and lead to true salary and not these artificially low salaries that encourage cheap labour.

    • Jotnar says:

      You understand that Caymanians are not a minority in absolute terms, forming over 50% of the population, and are 100% of the voting population, right? Yes there are large numbers of foreigners here because the economy demands more jobs than the local adult population could provide even if all the necessary skill sets were available, but you cannot claim that the only hope is to be the biggest minority – not as long as the franchise is withheld from expatriates.

  11. X supporter says:

    This is the PPM’s legacy but it makes their so called manifesto a real fraud just like their so called dubious leadership!!!!

  12. Anonymous says:

    So 22.63% of prisoners (and not the 10% headline recently exclaimed by the Compass) are not Caymanian, even before any consideration is given to whether or not some of the persons identified as Caymanian may not in fact be Caymanian (an issue addressed by Auntie recently).

    As at 30 September last year the Immigration Statistics confirm 22,148 expatriates on full work permits or government contracts, and another 3,713 expatriates here on Temporary Work Permits, for a total of 25,861. Everyone agrees the numbers have gone up significantly since then.

    In addition there are thousands of Permanent Residents and their spouses in the workforce, and significant numbers of spouses of Caymanians. Conservatively these number about 4,000 , so the number of expatriates in the workforce is in fact around 30,000. If the workforce is indeed 39,138 as the ESO contends, and there are 30,000 Expatriates in employment in Cayman as Immigration contends, then only about 25% of the workforce are Caymanian.

    If there are only 60,413 persons here, and we add thousands of expatriate dependents to the work permit numbers (which is fair and appropriate as their are thousands of expatriate children, retirees and non-working spouses here), then it is plain that either there are far fewer Caymanians than being reported (and Caymanians are a significant minority (not 56.7%) or alternatively, as seems more likely, the number of expatriates living here is significantly under-reported and the population of the Cayman Islands is much more than 60,413.

    Maybe it is my math that is wrong, but sure as hell, someone’s is, and quite significantly. If it is me, I would appreciate someone with a better calculator setting me straight.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Way to go PPM!!! Your Government has successfully, tangibly and officially made Caymanians a minority in their own country (p*ss-off all of those who wish to employ semantics as to whether Cayman is a country or not – that is irrelevant).

    That is your second significant milestone in displacing the interests of the indigenous population in favour of those of others – the first being employment.

    Perhaps the Hon. Premier will make a statement and accept this dubious honour??!!

    • Banana Boy says:

      Presumably being a minority only matters if those in the majority have any power. Eg slaves in ancient rome made up around 40% of the population but only free citizens had any power. As Caymanian’s are the only ones with voting rights and therefore the only ones with political power – does it really matter if their are more expats?

    • Anonymous says:

      56.7% is a majority, whichever way you slice it, but don’t let facts get in the way of a rant.

  14. Anonymous says:

    “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
    British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli

    • Jotnar says:

      There is a fourth type – erroneous attribution of quotes. Not Disraeli; although attributed to him by Twain, first records of its use post dates his death.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Thank you for temporary ditch digging jobs Premier Work Permit Revenue…great short term window dressing.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Time for a referendum perhaps?
    🙂

    – Who

    • Anonymous says:

      Come on and write one up.

    • Anonymous says:

      Please do. You may find that Theresa May will be a little different in approach and will act with urgency, without hesitation and without a care towards you or the consequences.
      You may want to look at her previous track record before anyone suggests anything that could rip through here and leave a regrettable legacy.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Does anyone know how the ESO determines whether someone is a Caymanian?

  18. Anonymous says:

    And according to a report elsewhere the number of people employed in the public sector is now well in excess of 10% of the total population.

  19. Shhhhhhhhhhh. says:

    Birth rate falling? OK. Vitamin E and maybe viagara for all males! LOL.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Only a couple of months ago we were told categorically that 90% of prisoners were Caymanian. Now it is 75%. Why the sudden change?

  21. Anonymous says:

    Who cares. Errebody is Caymanian now so just open the doors and grow caymans for the best.

  22. Unison says:

    Gentlemen, this our home front! Population low. It’s about time we get rid of contraceptions! Think of Grenada, Cuba, Jamaica doing better than us! Pregnate as many women as you can!!! Learn from the fishermen of old! Learn from the wild roosters for crying out loud!!! Do you see a rooster thinking twice before he jumps five chicks in one day???!!!

    NEVER!!!

    Ok then … get started! (:/

  23. Rule Brittania says:

    The British are coming, the British are coming! Not a damn thing WhoDat can do about it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.