Caricom officials met in Bermuda yesterday to discuss how to meet the growing demand for statistics about young people.

Participants from the Government and private sector met to determine how to help agencies gather statistics on school drop-out rates by age, the ratio of literate females to males between the ages of 15-24, contraceptive use and the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Other crucial statistics included victims of violence by type of crime and age.

The aim of the meeting was to formulate a plan to make the statistics generally available at the national and regional levels.

Participants examined population, households, work, education, health, crime, and poverty trends to determine which statistics are readily available and which are not. Part of the regional programme is to encourage all stakeholders to become involved in compiling and producing statistics in each Caricom member state.

Caricom representatives Dr. Philomen Harrison, programme manager statistics, and Sylvan Roberts, senior project officer, statistics, gave a presentation on the United Nation?s Millennium Development Goals on how social indicators will predict trends for the future.

Mrs. Melinda Williams, the Social and Demographic Statistician with the Department of Statistics, said Caricom had developed a programme to help achieve this goal.

?The demand for social and gender statistics and indicators has increased tremendously over the past few years. There is now a global thrust to build or enhance capacity among data producing agencies throughout the world,? she said.

The meet also arises from commitments made by world leaders at the United Nation?s Millennium Development Summit held in New York in the year 2000.

The Department of Statistics has invited representatives from key Government Ministries and outside health, planning, and education organisations.