BVI projected to have a 50K population in 20 years
A section of Tortola. (BVI News photo)
Local and international planning authorities are projecting that the population of the BVI will exceed 50,000 in the next 20 years.
According to Canadian firm Dillon Consulting who recently conducted a situation analysis on the BVI with the Town and Country Planning Department, the current population of the territory is about 32,000.
They are projecting that number to increase to a little more than 35,000 in the year 2020, climb to approximately 42,797 by 2030, then jump to roughly 50,487 by 2040.”
“That’s a rough, rough estimate about how much is going to be added to the population by 2040,” said Rory Baksh of Dillon Consultancy, one of the firms hired to collaborate with government on its enVision 2040 project.
“We know that population will continue to increase. Even though people have left the island and we think ‘yes, there may be some that may not come back’, on a whole, the population will continue to grow in some way shape or form. That’s because the British Virgin Islands offers a better quality of life on average than many other islands in the Caribbean and you have an attractive force … You will continue to attract people to the country that will seek out a better future for themselves,” Rory added while speaking at a public consultation on the enVision 2040 project.
Chief Planner Greg Adams has described the project as a guide to the territory’s rebuild and development throughout the next 20 years.
Town and Country Planning is leading the project with partners such as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour and with technical support from Environmental Systems Limited, Dillon Consulting, and Acacia Consulting and Research.
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And out of that about 10K will be born here.
That may be the projected population but how many belongers. The minority is going to rule the majority? Can’t wait to see that. Well, seeing the population grow tells us one thing….it appears that the islanders know how to do one thing right.
Last I heard some 60% of residents in the BVIs are not Belongers. Assume there are 32,000 people in the territory, that means about 13,000 are Belongers. Say about 25% are younger than 18, that leaves about 10,000 possible voters. But, voter turn out is about 40%, so we have about 4-5,000 voters determining the fate of 32,000. Democracy in action….
In terms of projected growth, please see https://www.populationof.net/british-virgin-islands/
How much did we pay for this silly projection? Who would likely move here today considering how difficult it would be? How slow our internet is? How poor our school system is? How broken our infrastructure is? Why would anyone want to share our misery?
Don’t get distracted. The real issue is, as it always has been for us, is freedom and reconstruction. We need freedom from those that have misspent our hard earned money on stupid projects. $7.2Million could have improved our life her by improving our roads, the reliability of our power, the lower cost of our power. (Why is electricity so expensive here? Why is the water so unreliable? Why is the internet so expensive and so slow? We have been enslaved for too long. We need a new constitution. We need help.
Those projections don’t seems correct to me. I left the BVI for good. For one main reason. Poor infrastructure. Will not be returning to that place.
The floods gates are open and it’s sad! Walk down the road and 0 out of 10 people you are from here. Sad. Almost all my son classmates are expats. sad.
You use to know practically everyone in the Village, now you hardly know anyone down here.
We don’t even know how many are here. Where is the census report of 2010?
Where’s the Audit? We haven’t see one of those in years as well.
Born and grew up here, when I look around there are hardly anyone that I know. Where are we going to put all these people on the other smaller islands.
Is Tortola the promise land? The Chinese, Filipinos and island people taking over this place. I think we need to make the BVI great again
Chinese, Filipinos and Down islanders are the ones doing most of the rebuilding and thus making the BVIs great again. Contemplate what would happen if one were to go with the xenophobic US rhetoric of no outsiders. Would that stir locals to pick up tools too get to work?
WE NEED POLITICIANS WITH BALLS TO CONFRONT THIS PROBLEM
Unintended consequences! B***S are what will cause the increase in population. When you hear the funeral notices and realise that even people who die early have huge families, both siblings and children, then its obvious there is still little in the way of family planning. 2.4 Children should be the norm, enough to maintain the population without further stretching resources.
“That’s a rough, rough estimate about how much is going to be added to the population by 2040,” said Rory Baksh of Dillon Consultancy, one of the firms hired to collaborate with government on its enVision 2040 project.
Do people know what a rough estimate is? Jesus Christ man, keep your panties on!
If others are moving here is because you are moving out, to the USVI and the US mainland. So don’t blame the expats.
Don’t kid yourself, “Abraham”; those exact sentiments listed will be the very reasons why many will continue to move here.
There’s lots of monies to be made here and the vagaries of “lack” will not deter them.
Remember, one man’s trash is another one’s treasure!
Better develop infrastructure to accommodate the people that live here NOW before you start adding more bodies expat or local!
The more expats. More rent money for me. Bring them on. I make good out of every situation. I need another 20 apartment.
In the last twenty-two years not a single one of the ten people I work with, all of whom have lived here those twenty-two years, has been counted in a census.
I question the veracity of any population numbers given by the government if those numbers are based upon a census count.