IN ITS survey of conditions in the British West Indies in 1938, the Report of the West Indian Royal Commission observed: Behind the various social and economic defects... the rapid increase in population is to be found sometimes as a cause and almost always as an aggravating factor. It has contributed more than any other single influence to the formidable increase of intermittent employment in the towns and of underemployment in the country and has thus gone far to nullify the effects of wage advances in improving the standard of living.' Although a quarter of a century has passed since the Royal Commission attributed the social and economic problems of the British West Indies to the increase in the population, very little has been done by Government or by private agencies to publicize family planning in Jamaica. Meanwhile, the dramatic reduction in infant mortality and the increasing expectancy of life have contributed to population growth. Emigration to Britain during the last decade has provided the only check on the increase in the population and its effect has been fairly limited. Jamaica is typical of many underdeveloped countries. However, the inability of the island to provide all its inhabitants with adequate employment, housing, food, clothes, education and medical and social services, is an index of population pressure as well as of underdevelopment. The rapid increase in the population retards the pace of social and economic improvements, and most Jamaicans are condemned to a low standard of living, despite the efforts of successive Governments. Incomes are generally low and very unequally distributed. While 92 per cent of the classified labour force earned less than ?300 per annum in 1959, almost 20 per cent of the remainder received over _Iooo.2 But social contrasts are not confined to the dichotomy of poor masses and rich elite. The society is divided into three main social and cultural sections -white, coloured and Negro-the social and economic role and status of each of which were determined under slavery more than two hundred years ago. Members of the Negro social section increasingly aspire to the West European standard of living enjoyed by the white and coloured groups, and some achieve it. But the opportunities for advancement in Jamaica are extremely limited, and most Negroes live at a lower standard, which involves irregular employment, poor housing and frequently poverty. Population pressure is, in itself, a major obstacle to change, and has been partly responsible for maintaining the status quo in the island and for creating the recent crisis in race relations. This paper examines some of the causes and two of the implications of population pressure in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. The growth and present-day distribution and density of population are described, and an attempt is made to measure population pressure by reference to the economic resources and social facilities of the city, and to examine its effect upon industrialization and housing.