Retirement issues in Jamaica are fast increasing in salience to policy given
rapid ageing of the population. A quantitative survey was conducted involving 2,000
men aged 55 years and over in one parish of Jamaica using cluster sample methodology.
Information related to retirement patterns, practices and planning was collected. Ap‐
proximately 66.5% of respondents had no plan to retire; 16.6 % did not think about it;
14.4% were self‐employed and would work until an eventual death; and 2.5% said their
children would take care of them. Of those who had retirement plans, the major con‐
cerns were where they would live (89.4%) and with whom (8.4%). Health care was a
cause for concern for only 2.2%. Men generally had not thought out retirement plans
well. Given a shift away from extended family systems, increasing life expectancy, in‐
creasing economic uncertainties, and shifting epidemiological patterns, there are im‐
plications for healthcare and social security policies, in the wider context of the
developing world.