Census 2011 shows St. Maarten Population is ageing

1. DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS (STAT)
For more information: 549-0235 – fax 542-3022
Address: Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard 6 (units 7/8)
Email: statinfo@sintmaartengov.org
Press release
Philipsburg, October 12th 2012
Census 2011 shows St. Maarten Population is ageing
The Department of Statistics (STAT) has released preliminary results of the Census 2011. During
the 2011 Census, which was conducted in April of that year, enumerators went house to house
and interviewed the population of St. Maarten. Questions that were asked related to the
household (composition, building material, language spoken, amenities available, nuisances
experienced) and personal characteristics such as demography and migration, health, fertility,
education, labour and income.
The data entry process has now been completed and STAT is in the process of verifying and
analysing the data. For this reason, the preliminary results are only reported relatively (as a
percentage). However, STAT can already release some of the basic results such as the household
characteristics, country of birth, nationalities, illnesses, insurance coverage, gender and age.
Household characteristics
The data shows that 63% of households include members that are related to each other while
nearly 30% of the population lives alone. The second and third most popular compositions are
households consisting of married couple with children (19%) and single mothers with one or more
children (13.18%). A notable statistic is that single parent households compose 15% of the
population.
An average household has 2.6 members. This is not significantly different from 2001.
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2. Country of birth and Nationality
The composition of St. Maarten is changing. The statistics show a shift in the country of birth
compared to 2001 Census results. 30% of the population is born on St. Maarten as was the case in
2001. The top 5 countries of birth in 2001 were Sint Maarten, Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Dominica and Curaçao. In 2011 however, the top 5 is Sint Maarten, Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Jamaica and Saint Martin. Other countries that are now also better represented are Guyana and
India.
Figure 1. Country of Birth 2011 Census vs. 2001 Census
14.00%
2001 Census 2011 Census
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
The country of birth is not synonymous with nationality. As the graph below shows, nationality
can be different from the country of birth. The second popular nationality is the Haitian
nationality with the Dominican (from the Dominican Republic) nationality the third most popular
and the Guyanese nationality follows closely behind the Jamaican nationality. Please note that
the category Netherlands includes persons with Dutch nationality.
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3. A notable observation is that a total of 91 recognized nationalities and 118 different birth
countries have been recorded.
Percentage
Nationality of persons
Netherlands 63.69%
Haiti 6.70%
Dominican Republic 5.68%
Jamaica 5.36%
Guyana 3.80%
Dominica 2.93%
India 1.67%
Saint Martin 1.55%
United States of America 0.86%
Saint Lucia 0.82%
Table 1. Top 10 Nationalities (in percentage)
Gender
In 2001 the ratio between men and women was 51.33% female and 48.66% male. This ratio has
changed in 2011 and we now have a distribution of 52.91% female and 47.06% male. This means
that for every 100 men on St. Maarten there are 112 women.
Age
The number of people over 40 is higher than it was in 2001 while the percentage of people under
40 has decreased. This ageing trend is noticeable in more countries in the Caribbean.
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4. Figure 2. Age distribution Census 2001 vs Census 2011
2011 Census (Female) 2011 Census (Male) 2001 Census (Female) 2001 Census (Male)
85+
80-84
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
10-14
5-9
0-4
10% 5% 0% 5% 10%
The age category with the largest growth is amongst people aged 55 to 59 while the largest
decrease is recorded in the age category 30 to 34. The graph below (Figure 3) outlines the valley
between 25 and 45 year- olds and the peak between 45 to 75. This is a clear indication of the
ageing process of the population.
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5. 4.00% Figure 3. Difference between 2001 and 2011 Census in percentage
points
3.00%
2.00%
1.00%
0.00%
-1.00%
-2.00%
-3.00%
-4.00%
Insurance coverage
Nearly 65% of SXM population is insured by SZV / BZV. This is a significant change from 2001
when only 46% was insured by SZV. This shift has benefited the total uninsured population, who
now consist of 12.26% of the population as opposed to 30.20% observed in 2001. From Figure 4
we can see that SZV increased as the uninsured decreased.
Figure 4a 2001 Census Insurance coverage
Private
insurance,
11.2%
BZV/SZV, 7.1% I am not
insured, 30.2%
SVB, 38.9%
Insurance by
employer, 3.1%
PP card, 3.8%
FZOG, 1.8%
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6. Figure 4b 2011 Census Insurance coverage
Private insurance,
14.6%
I am not insured,
12.3%
Not reported, 2.9%
BZV/SZV, 20.2%
Insurance by
employer, 1.7%
PP card, 1.6%
SVB, 44.7%
I don’t know, 1.1%
FZOG, 1.0%
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7. Illnesses
We have expanded the list of illnesses during the 2011 Census compared to the 2001 Census to
include cancer, sickle cell, Brain hemorrhage and dementia/Alzheimer. High blood pressure is still
the leading illness on St. Maarten. Figure 5 illustrates the ranking of each illness, where blood
pressure is the most prevalent followed by diabetes and asthma.
Figure 5. St. Maarten population and illnesses
The number of blood pressure patients has more than doubled since 2001; this is also true for
diabetes. Although the percentage of the population suffering from asthma has not doubled,
there is a significant rise.
2011 2001
Illnesses Census Census
Blood pressure 10.71% 4.00%
Diabetes 5.37% 2.51%
Asthma / chronic bronchitis / CARA 2.65% 1.81%
Other 1.26%
Glaucoma / pressure in the eyes 1.04% 0.43%
Heart problems 0.86% 0.73%
Sickle cell 0.42%
Cancer 0.29%
Consequences of a heart attack 0.24% 0.09%
Serious kidney problems 0.21% 0.30%
Dementia / Alzheimer 0.21%
Consequences of a brain hemorrhage 0.14%
Table 2. Illnesses Census 2001 vs. Census 2011
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