pandemic. The data from the country’s Statistics Division in the Ministry of Economic Development and Planning shows that 2021 recorded the highest number of births and deaths for the 2019-2023 period.

The records, which are part of a project developed with the assistance of the government of Canada through the Project for the Regional Advancement of Statistics in the Caribbean, show that there were 1,611 births and 1,273 deaths. Before 2021, Grenada had recorded 1,575 births and 973 deaths in 2019, while the figures for 2020 were 1,540 births and 1,033 deaths.

It is notable that the increase in births and deaths rose the year after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic and countries around the world went into a lockdown. More than 200 Grenadian deaths were categorized as COVID-19-related in 2021. Grenada went into lockdown in March 2020, and the years 2020 and 2021 were the COVID-19 years with periodic curfew and restriction of movement of people as part of the government’s strategy to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

The data shows that the live births began reducing in 2022, the same year that countries returned to normal operations following the COVID-19 pandemic, which is now labelled as an endemic. There were 1,469 newborns in 2022, with the figure reducing to 1,380 a year later. There were 1,136 and 1,068 deaths, respectively, for the two years under consideration. (Jamaica Observer)