GIFF JOHNSON
The population in the Marshall Islands population is barely changing from year-to-year largely as a result of out-migration to the United States. According to a newly released Asian Development Bank data report on the Pacific and Asia, the total population in the RMI has increased by only 3,000 people in 17 years — despite the fact that in the 2000s, the RMI averaged around 1,500 births per year. In 2000, the population estimate was 51,200. In 2016, this had increased to only 54,200, according to the report. Out-migration has both decreased the number of births nationally and cancelled out the high-birth rate in terms of its impact on population increase. Beginning from the mid-1990s, an average of 1,000 Marshall Islanders left the RMI for the US. In FY2010, the number of births nationally was over 1,500. Numbers have dropped off dramatically since then, with a decline to 1,089 in FY2016. Births in Majuro have declined from over 1,000 annually to 732 in FY2016. Bottom line, births nationally have dropped to around 1,100 annually, which is about the same as the last available annual out-migration number. If the birth decline trend continues, the RMI may soon move from its current negligible growth to become a population in decline.
Read more about this in the September 22, 2017 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.