Short general data on Jamaica

As the former colony of the Great Britain Jamaica is included into Commonwealth. Till now formally the head of the state is the English queen who is presented on island by the governor-general. Capital of Jamaica - a city the Kingston valve. In the administrative attitude the country is divided into three counties.

the Population of Jamaica compounds nearby 2,5  million inhabitants, from them 78 % lives in cities. Island coastal areas are most invaded. Modern jamajtsy are offsprings of Negroes-slaves whom Spaniards, and then Englishmen imported from Africa for maintenance of sugar plantations with a man power (indigenous population of Jamaica - Indians - it has been exterminated). Negroes among jamajtsev - more 75 %, the others - mulattos of various extents of mixture. In slaveholding times the admixed Jamaican population was subdivided into some bunches depending on a share of Negro blood: mulattos - offsprings of the white father and mother-negress, kvarterony - from 1/4 Negro blood, musti - with 1/8, musteffino - with 1/16 (offsprings last from spoilage or of communication with white already were considered white under the law).

JAmajtsy are occupied mainly in agriculture, a mineral industry, trade and service sphere, and the bulk occupied in sphere of service and trade is to some extent connected to tourist business. Therefore the welfare of many inhabitants of Jamaica directly depends on inflow of tourists.

Except jamajtsev, on island there lives also a significant amount of natives of India and China. Indians and Chineses are offsprings of workers who in the middle of XIX century, after cancellation rabovladenija, employed contractually for job on plantations. Now the bulk of Indians is engaged in agriculture and lives in villages in the west of island; it is a lot of Indians and in capital. Chineses in the core trade in small trade, almost all of them live in large cities - the Kingston valve and merged with it Sent-Endrju. In cities there lives also a small number of Englishmen, Cubans, Americans and Germans.

Jamaica - the emigration country. Mass emigration jamajtsev as result obezzemelivanija peasants has begun in the end of the last century. The Jamaican Negroes compounded a significant part of a man power on building of Panama canal, on banana plantations of the countries of Central America, on sugar plantations of Cuba and the USA. The torrent of emigrants after the Second World War has even more gained in strength. In this season they went mainly to the Great Britain, and also to Canada, and after 1962  year (when in the Great Britain the rigid immigration legislation was accepted) - to Canada and the USA. Now almost the third part of all jamajtsev lives abroad - mainly in the Great Britain, the USA, Nicaragua and to Costa Rica.

The State language of Jamaica - English. However the colloquial dialect jamajtsev has a little the general with literary English tongue. In him it is a lot of words from various African tongues and very far from English a pronunciation. Therefore the Jamaican dialect sometimes consider as the special Creole tongue. Chineses and Indians also widely use the Jamaican dialect of the English tongue, but in a life use also the native languages.

On a religious fitting the bulk of the population of Jamaica - protenstants, are also a small number of roman catholics. Among a population part some African cults, for example a cult obia are passed round also.