The Bahamas 2010 Census Report provides innumerable opportunities for government agencies, private researchers ...and the general public ...to better understand our Bahamas

The Bahamas in numbers

The Nassau Guardian Editorial

Our census, a vital and complicated undertaking, describes the identity of The Bahamas through numbers.  It is also indicative of trends and analysis of data based on successive census reports.

For The Bahamas this not only means comparison on a regional scale, but also between our islands.  Remarkably, this is the 19th decennial census to be conducted in The Bahamas.  Early census counts are not likely to be comparable to recent data due to likely discrepancies in survey methods, but they nonetheless provide value to the history of The Bahamas.

Interestingly, the census report makes note of the first census in 1722 whereby 74 percent of the population was white and 26 percent black, compared to the 2010 census whereby 91 percent identified themselves as black, five percent white, and two percent as of mixed race.  Such an extreme reorientation of the racial makeup of a country identifies the need to reexamine assumptions about who we are.

Population statistics are perhaps the most widely recognized outcome of a census.  For those living in New Providence, it is all too obvious that the island accounts for 246,329 people or 70 percent of the total Bahamian population.  With an additional 35,497 people since 2000, it is all too apparent that the roads are more congested, lines a bit longer and the housing prices just a bit higher.

But herein lies the importance of data availability.  While New Providence may have experienced the greatest increase in people, several other islands had a much higher percent change in population growth – take Abaco, which experienced an increase of 4,054 people or nearly 31 percent to a population of 17,224 compared to 2000.  Though such an increase would be nominal for New Providence over 10 years, in Abaco the additional people stress local infrastructure from power generation to road maintenance.

The Bahamas’ greatest challenge is providing and maintaining basic infrastructure across the populated islands.  Even with all the controversy, Abaco needed a new power generating facility and still suffers from countless power failures.  While the population congregates in New Providence, growth and a retraction of growth on some islands must guide government expenditure and planning.

Likewise, the government must accept the diversity of residents living in The Bahamas and amend its immigration policies.  Seventeen percent of the population claims citizenship elsewhere, the majority or 64 percent were from Haiti.  Though the census claims to account for residents regardless of immigration status, it is difficult to imagine that the census was able to account for all residents of known Haitian communities such as those found in Abaco.

The Nassau Guardian has reported on specific data tables such as Internet access and usage, health insurance and access to toilets at private dwellings.  There are numerous other tables where trends can be extrapolated on for use in education planning, the looming retirement of baby boomers and their future healthcare needs, marriage trends and reproduction rates.

A copy of the Census 2010 Report became publicly available online on Monday, October 15.  Such data provides innumerable opportunities for government agencies, private researchers and the general public to better understand our Bahamas.

March 07, 2013

thenassauguardian editorial

Bahamas 2010 Census: Many Family Islands in danger of being abandoned

Many Family Islands in danger of being abandoned
thenassauguardian editorial


The results of the 2010 Census has finally been released and to no one's surprise, there has been an 18 percent hike in the number of people in New Providence.

The report has also revealed that there has been significant population decreases in a number of the Family Islands, namely Andros, Berry islands, Inagua, Cat Island and one or two others.

We really didn't need a census to point that out, because anyone traveling to the Family Islands over the past five years would have noticed a steady decline in the number of people on those islands.

To make matters worse, those numbers involved mostly young people leaving the islands. Those middle-aged people who opted to leave their places of birth more than likely did so out of financial necessity, moving to Nassau to seek employment opportunities.

For the most part it is our young people who are abandoning the islands and looking to"live it up"in Nassau.

Of course, on the surface, one cannot blame them.

When you consider the lack of any major developments within the Family Islands, it leaves very little choices of job opportunities for our youngsters.

The government may not feel any weight about these numbers and may disregard these significant declines, however, it cannot be ignored.

If we want to see these islands be preserved for Bahamians, something must be done to not only keep the little amounts of young people in those islands there, but to try and encourage others who may have left to return and contribute to the development of those islands.

More has to be done to boost the economies and the opportunities for people within our Family Islands. We have said this over and over, but apparently, this is falling on deaf ears.

These latest figures confirm that no one is listening.

If we continue to ignore our Family Islands and the development of those islands, one day we will look up and they will be overrun by foreigners or deserted.

Outsiders, who see the value of our islands will begin to move to those places, take over and even offer to buy those islands. The past has already proven that in some cases governments are eager to sell cays and certain parts of our islands.

When the older people who now inhabit our islands have passed on, with no young people there to move in and take over and positively contribute, what will become of our islands?

This is an issue we must take seriously.

But as long as the government and others continue to thrive on the notion that Nassau is The Bahamas, one day that may just be the only island we have left.

And with an already overcrowded population in Nassau, how much more can the island of 21 x 7 take?

The government must move quickly to preserve our Family Islands. We must divert more investors to the islands to provide more opportunities for those people on those islands to find employment.

Then, to make it livable, the proper infrastructure must also be put in place to sustain those developments and any proposed growth.

10/20/2010

thenassauguardian editorial

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