Jamaica ranks second on human flight and brain drain index Loop Jamaica

“The latest value from 2022 is 9.1 index points. For comparison, the world average in 2022 based on 177 countries is 5.21 index points,” it added.

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 had a score of 8.2 index points, while Guyana received 8.1.

Human flight and brain drain index country rankings

Australia was the least country in the world affected by brain drain, receiving the lowest score of 0.4.

The Global Economy’s human flight and brain drain indicator also ranked Sweden (0.6), Norway (0.7), and Canada (0.8) as some of the other countries least impacted by migration or human displacement caused by economic and/or political reasons.

Locally, Prime Minister Andrew Holness had recently weighed in on the issue of migration by suggesting that it has impacted the country negatively, with numerous members of the middle class migrating.

“Somehow they [young persons] look at other countries, they see what is happening in other countries, and they say, ‘Why can’t it happen here? Why do we have all the problems that we have?’

“It is infuriating to many of them, and when we talk to them, particularly the millennials, they just want to leave. They want to just go overseas and enjoy the benefits that are existing in other developed countries,” Holness said earlier this month.

He noted, as well, that Jamaica has suffered from migration since post-Independence, especially since the 1970s.

“Since the 1970s, there has been a migration of Jamaica’s middle class… No country can progress without building its middle class. The middle class isn’t a bourgeoisie concept. The middle class is the segment of your society, where skills and entrepreneurism and innovation exist,” he explained.

“Unfortunately, we have been losing them, and one of the reasons we have been losing them is security… job opportunities, maybe another, but we are slowly conquering that.”

Another issue driving middle-class persons away from the country is the quality of infrastructure, including housing, Holness then claimed.

“In our 60th year, we have to confront this, and make a commitment to improve our infrastructure, so that people can feel that they are living in a modern society,” he stated.

“So we are appealing to the young people in our country to consider that ‘Project Jamaica’ is not complete, and you have a role, not just to be critical of the incompleteness and failures of ‘Project Jamaica’, but you have a role in making ‘Project Jamaica’ a success,” urged Holness.