2022 Census Preliminary Results: Population up by 23%  

Today, the Statistical Institute of Belize revealed the preliminary results of the 2022 census. This census, which began in May of 2022, collected data from nine hundred fifty-six areas over the course of an eight-month period. The data was then analyzed by the S.I.B. to identify Belize’s population trends, demographics, and socioeconomic insights. The preliminary results revealed that Belize’s population has increased by twenty-three percent since 2010, with just over seventy-five thousand more people. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Belize’s population increased by twenty-three percent since 2010. There are about twenty-five point two percent more females and twenty-one point four pecent males than there were in 2010. Despite the increase in population to close to four hundred thousand, the rate at which it has been increasing has been declining steadily over the past few years. That’s because there are fewer births. Director General of the S.I.B., Diana Castillo-Trejo gave further insight into the trends.

 

Diana Castillo-Trejo, Director General, S.I.B.

“We also saw a dramatic reduction in our dependency ratio. So, whereas in 2010, the dependency ratio was 60. 2%, and our dependency ratio is basically the ratio of persons who would not normally be a part of the labor force. So, our children 0 to 14 and persons older than 65, um, as a percent of the persons who would normally be in the labor force. So, persons age 15 to 64. So it, it gives you a ratio of your dependent population to your non dependent population. In 2010, our dependency ratio was over 60%. In 2022, it had fallen by more than 10 percentage points to just under 50%. And we can see that this was all due to a reduction in our child dependency ratio. Whereas we had a child dependency ratio of 50%. 53. 4 percent in 2010. This had fallen dramatically to 41. 3 percent in 2022. We also see the effects of those slightly longer lives in an increase in the old age dependency ratio.”

 

The census also revealed that the number of houses increased significantly, growing from seventy-nine thousand six hundred fifty-eight in 2010 to one hundred ten thousand, seven hundred nineteen. The number of persons dwelling within each household decreased from four per household to three point six. Deputy Director General of the SIB, Miriam Willoughby detailed these changes.

 

Miriam Willoughby, Deputy Director General, S.I.B.

“In terms of the population characteristics in 2022, the total household population stood at three hundred and eighty seven, three hundred and ninety 7,483, up 23.3%. Since the last census in 2010, Stan Creek District experienced the highest population growth at 40.3%. While Carole Ball had the lowest at 10. 4%. 50. 50.8 percent of the population were female compared to 48.2 percent male. 27. 6 percent of the population were below the age of 14. The national median age wasat 25 years of age. The share of the population We since 2010, and we had about 11.5 of the population that was born abroad, and almost one third of migrants came to Belize because of family reunification.”

 

Although the number of people migrating to Belize for the purpose of family reunification increased Doctor Osmond Martinez, CEO of the Ministry of Economic Development explained that, that did not signal a decline in the number of people migrating to Belize for employment.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O., Ministry Economic Development

“The statistics didn’t say only family relations because no, the hiring of people is more formal, formal. So if you ask the ministry of labor, for example, there has to, they have been creating a mechanism in place whereby we can import the labor force not to participate in the agro productive sector and the construction sector. If I’m not wrong, just a few days, you had a, an interview with the, uh, this, uh, cement factory, you know, who, who produce cement, uh, cement blocks, no. And there was no workers. To work on that field. And, and if you look at my speech, I actually, um, highlighted the service sector, the, uh, BPOs and the, um, and the tourism sector are boosting on our, um, their numbers are better off than where it was in 2019. So it has attracted. Young people, young, educated people who are well rewarded in terms of their salary. So they don’t want to go and work in the construction sector or the agro productive sector. So the citrus, banana, uh, the sugar industry continue to face challenges year after year. And so there is an importation of hundreds and hundreds of workers every year. So for example, in 2022. There were, uh, 21, 000 workers that were imported from Central America so that they can continue to contribute to our economy through the agro productive and construction sector.”

Britney Gordon for News Five.