St. Andrew Parish
St. Andrew contains Jamaica's corporate headquarters, University of the West Indies, and suburban wealth surrounding Kingston's urban core.
St. Andrew surrounds Kingston and together they form the Corporate Area that functions as Jamaica's economic and administrative center. The parish contains Kingston's suburban expansion—New Kingston's office towers, upscale residential areas, the University of the West Indies campus—creating spatial segregation where commerce and wealth concentrate in St. Andrew while poverty persists in Kingston proper.
The parish's economic function encompasses Jamaica's formal sector headquarters—banks, insurance companies, telecommunications, major retailers. The university generates knowledge economy employment and attracts students from across the Caribbean. Norman Manley International Airport, though technically in Kingston, serves the combined metropolitan area that St. Andrew dominates demographically.
Urban sprawl creates infrastructure challenges—traffic congestion, water supply constraints, informal settlement expansion on hillsides vulnerable to landslides. The 2025 hurricane recovery stressed systems already strained by decades of growth. Whether St. Andrew can manage urbanization pressures while maintaining the corporate and educational functions that generate Jamaica's professional employment determines whether metropolitan growth remains sustainable.