The results of the 2010 Census has finally been released and to no one’s surprise, there has been an 18 percent hike in the number of people in New Providence.
The report has also revealed that there has been significant population decreases in a number of the Family Islands, namely Andros, Berry islands, Inagua, Cat Island and one or two others.
We really didn’t need a census to point that out, because anyone travelling to the Family Islands over the past five years would have noticed a steady decline in the amount of people on those islands.
To make matters worse, those numbers involved mostly young people leaving the islands. Those middle aged people who opted to leave their places of birth more than likely did so out of financial necessity, moving to Nassau to seek employment opportunities.
For the most part it is our young people who are abandoning the islands and looking to “live it up” in Nassau.
The Government must move quickly to preserve our family islands. We must divert more investors to the islands to provide more opportunities for those people on those islands to find employment.
Then, to make it livable, the proper infrastructure must also be put in place to sustain those developments and any proposed growth.
