The buildings were increasingly designed to meet the preference for electricity-driven appliances. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has remained fairly constant in these years, with a population growth rate also just below 1 per cent per annum. Also in 2011, Jamaica’s Human Development Index (HDI) was 0.727, marginally below the average for Latin America and the Caribbean of 0.731, and placing it 79th among 187 countries.