While registering a higher brain drain index over the last two years, Jamaica dropped one place in global rankings with the third-highest negative human displacement in the world.
Business and economics website, TheGlobalEconomy.com, found that against 174 other countries, Jamaica posted a human flight and brain drain index score of 9.2, signifying the sustained migration of the island’s young, skilled professionals to greener pastures overseas.
Jamaica previously scored a 9.1 in 2022 and was ranked second behind fellow small island developing state, Samoa. In fact, the island’s bump down was largely attributable to war-torn Palestine climbing up from third in the 2022 rankings.
Samoa returned to the top of the global brain drain rankings, with a ‘perfect 10’ indicator score.
According to TheGlobalEconomy, the index indicator covers available data between 2007 and 2024 from several sources, including central banks, national authorities, the World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Fund for Peace (FFP) and other multilateral and non-governmental entities.
In arriving at the rankings, the website noted that the “Human flight and brain drain indicator considers the economic impact of human displacement (for economic or political reasons) and the consequences this may have on a country’s development. The higher the index, the greater the human displacement.”
Top 10 rankings, as well as Caribbean placements, can be seen below:
| Country | Human flight and brain drain index score (0=low, 10=high) | Global ranking (Out of 177 countries) |
| Samoa | 10 | 1 |
| Palestine | 9.4 | 2 |
| Jamaica | 9.2 | 3 |
| Eritrea | 8.7 | 4 |
| El Salvador | 8.6 | 5 |
| Somalia | 8.5 | 6 |
| Ukraine | 8.4 | 7 |
| Albania | 8.3 | 8 |
| Micronesia | 8.1 | 9 |
| Haiti | 8.0 | 10 |
| — | — | — |
| Guyana | 7.9 | 12 |
| Grenada | 7.4 | 18 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 6.7 | 38 |
| Dominican Republic | 6.4 | 44 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 6.1 | 57 |
| Cuba | 5.7 | 75 |
| Suriname | 5.6 | 83 |
| Barbados | 4.8 | 99 |
| The Bahamas | 4.3 | 112 |
| Belize | 3.9 | 122 |
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