Bonaire: purchasing power up again in 2015

Since the first measurement in 2012, median purchasing power on Bonaire has increased. The sharpest rise was in 2015, when 50 percent of the population gained at least 3.6 percent. By contrast, 37 percent of the population lost spending power in the same year.

Spending power up for people in work

Employed people saw their purchasing power increase slightly more on an annual basis since 2012 than the population as a whole. In 2015, purchasing power of household members with income from labour or their own business in both 2014 and 2015 improved the most, namely by 4.4 percent. Those on social benefits in both years saw a minor increase of 2.5 percent. Only one-quarter of this group saw their spending power decline.

Largest increase for single-parent households and couples with children

Multi-person households had 4.2 percent more median spending power in 2015. The most significant improvement was seen among households with children: single-parent households and couples with children had 6.9 percent and 4.9 percent more purchasing power respectively. For single-person households, the increase was 2.5 percent.

Sharper rise for young households

Of all age groups, the group of people under the age of 40 benefited most from the increase in purchasing power. These are the people who are still moving up the career ladder. As they gain more work experience and find better paid jobs, their wages increase. In 2015, this age group gained 6.8 percent in purchasing power. Despite this favourable development, spending power declined for 36 percent of people in this age category. For people aged 60 and over whose primary source of income was AOV (the local old age insurance benefit), the purchasing power improvement of 2.4 percent was equal to the development of AOV amounts in real terms.

More purchasing power for all income classes

All income groups saw their purchasing power increase. Purchasing power improved most for people in the higher income groups. In the second highest income group, purchasing power rose most notably by 4.7 percent, while the increase amounted to 4.3 percent among people in the highest income class.