The Caymanian Compass detailed some key findings from the full National Census report of the Cayman Islands, provided to the Legislative Assembly this week and which was completed by the Economics and Statistics office at the end of last year. The document reveals information on Cayman’s demography, disability and illness, education, marital status, fertility, employment, household and housing characteristics. This report shows that the growth in population since the 1999 census is down to a growth not in foreign residents but due to an increase in the Caymanian population.

There 52% more Caymanians compared to the last census while foreigners increased by just over 40% on the number of ex-pats in 1999. There were 10,488 more Caymanians but only 5,604 more non-Caymanians. Despite the unemployment rate among Caymanians running at 9.8% the census found that the workforce is made up of a greater number of non-Caymanians as over 53% of the workforce are foreign nationals.

Among the employed Caymanians, 51.4 percent have earnings below the GDP per capita bracket ($38,400-$57,599) while 21.5 percent are within this bracket, and 23.6 percent are above this bracket. Among the employed non-Caymanians, 69.4 percent earn below the GDP per capita bracket, 11.8 percent are within this bracket while 15.9 percent earn higher than this bracket.

There are now 22,760 households on the islands an increase of 7853 from 1999 with 51% of them being in George Town but the rate of increase was highest in Bodden Town where households have grown over the last decade at a rate of more than 95%. The average household size has decreased slightly from 1999 to 2.4 from 2.6. Almost one in three homes are single people households which reflects the findings of the census that more than a third of the country’s population is not in a marriage or permanent relationship with 43.7% of women not in any kind of union.

46.3% of households are rented furnished accommodation only less and a similar number live in their own homes but around two thirds of those owners have a mortgage.

While around 18% of households are sharing facilities such as kitchens or bathrooms with other households, Cayman homes are very techy. The census found that more than 65.2% of households have internet connection and almost three quarters have a computer in the home. 80% of people have radios and nearly 95% of homes reported having a TV. Although fixed home telephone lines were down to only 39% 71 percent of homes reported having at least two cell phones.

Cayman remains a very religious nation with 90% of the population stating that they belong to some form of religious denomination. Of those only 7% did not belong to a Christian denomination. The largest single group of Christians 22.65 were members of the Church of God congregation. Seventh Day Adventists.

This census also included a snapshot of the nation’s health which revealed that over 89 people in every thousand have high blood pressure. The top two disabilities are sight and lower leg problems with incidence rates respectively of 14.6 and 9.6 per 1,000 persons. The census found that the incidence of illness among Caymanians is twice that of non-Caymanians.

Over 86.8 percent of people have health insurance with only 121 persons being deemed uninsurable. Government’s insurance company covers more than 11,500 people while over 35,000 people have private sector insurance coverage.

See the full 2010 Census at www.eso.ky.