The island of Jamaica is located in the Caribbean Sea in Central America, south of Cuba. It acquired independence from Britain in 1962. It has a population of 2.6 million as of 2000 and a surface area of 10,990 sq/km, therefore making the density 236.6 pop/sq km. When compared to the United States’ 282 million population in a 9.6 million sq/km surface area, (making the density 29.4 pop/sq km), one is able to recognize one of the major problems Jamaica is faced with: overpopulation. Jamaica which is classified as a lower-middle income country has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $8.10 billion dollars in 2003 while the U.S. which is a high-income country has a GDP of $10,948 billion in the same year. Jamaica’s human development index is 0.736 to America’s 0.944 and is ranked 98/177 in the world. Jamaica and the United States are close in their life expectancy years at birth: 71 and 77.03 respectively. HIV is very high in Jamaica as it has infected 1.2 percent of men and women 15-49......
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