Infant mortality rate:
total: 15.98 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 16.66 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 15.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 73.24 years
male: 71.54 years
female: 75.03 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:
2.41 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
1.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
22,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
900 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Jamaican(s)
adjective: Jamaican

Ethnic groups:
black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%, mixed
7.3%, other 0.1%

Religions:
Protestant 61.3% (Church of God 21.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist 9%,
Baptist 8.8%, Pentecostal 7.6%, Anglican 5.5%, Methodist 2.7%,
United Church 2.7%, Jehovah's Witness 1.6%, Brethren 1.1%, Moravian
1.1%), Roman Catholic 4%, other including some spiritual cults 34.7%

Languages:
English, patois English

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
total population: 87.9%
male: 84.1%
female: 91.6% (2003 est.)

Government Jamaica

Country name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Jamaica

Government type:
constitutional parliamentary democracy

Capital:
name: Kingston
geographic coordinates: 18 00 N, 76 48 W
time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
Time)

Administrative divisions:
14 parishes; Clarendon, Hanover, Kingston, Manchester, Portland,
Saint Andrew, Saint Ann, Saint Catherine, Saint Elizabeth, Saint
James, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Trelawny, Westmoreland
note: for local government purposes, Kingston and Saint Andrew were
amalgamated in 1923 into the present single corporate body known as
the Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation

Independence:
6 August 1962 (from UK)

National holiday:
Independence Day, 6 August (1962)

Constitution:
6 August 1962

Legal system:
based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
jurisdiction

Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
represented by Governor General Kenneth O. HALL (since 15 February
2006)
head of government: Prime Minister Portia SIMPSON-MILLER (since 30
March 2006)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
the prime minister