Poverty is at the heart of a considerable amount of vulnerability, social discrimination and exclusion: Households with inadequate income are more vulnerable to changing economic, social and environmental circumstances and to reduced income earning potential.
People in poverty also tend to live in inadequate and unsanitary housing in less desirable neighbourhoods, which are especially vulnerable to weather-related damage. They are also more prone to live in communities with high rates of crime and violence, which can be unsafe environments for adolescents and young people
According to a 2021 UNICEF report, In 2016, 30% of people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were living in poverty and 3% were indigent (indigence entails living in a level of poverty in which real hardship and deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking). Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ poverty rate is higher than the average of 23% for the Eastern Caribbean.
More specifically, more than 1 in 3 or 38% of children ages 0-17 and 37% of adolescents ages 10-19 were living in poverty, which is higher than the poverty rate for adults aged 18+ years (30%).
The poverty rate for young people ages 10-24 is not available because it has yet to be calculated. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines child and adolescent poverty rates are slightly higher than the averages for the Eastern Caribbean (33% and 34% respectively).
Adolescents (ages 10-19) living in female-headed households were more likely to live in poverty (41%) than adolescents living in male-headed households (31%). Whereas, adolescents living in male-headed households (3%) were equally likely to live in indigence as adolescents living in female-headed- households (3%).
Projected changes in severe poverty due to COVID-19
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been projected that severe poverty rates will increase in the ECA, impacting the societies at large, but children in particular. For children in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, severe poverty is projected to increase fourfold from 3% pre-pandemic to 12% as a result of the pandemic for all in the population.
The projected increase in severe poverty is even more dramatic for children from 4% pre-pandemic to 18% as a result of the pandemic.
Youth were twice as likely as adults to be unemployed
Youth ages 20-24 (78%) were four times more likely to be employed than youth aged 15-19 (18%); whereas, youth ages 15-19 (41%) were twice as likely to be unemployed than youth aged 20-24 years (19%).
In terms of gender, male youth (50%) were slightly more likely to participate in the labour force than female youth (45%); male youth (50%) were also more likely to be unemployed than female youth (39%).
Country Youth Unemployment
International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database. Data as of June 2022.
Antigua and Barbuda – 26 %
Barbados – 30.6
Dominica – 40 %
Grenada – 29 %
Haiti – 35.7
Jamaica – 26.1
St. Lucia – 38.7
St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 41.1
Trinidad and Tobago – 12.7
