<P> The urban lower class, which made up about 15 percent of the total population in the early 1980s, was concentrated in Port - au - Prince and the major coastal towns . Increased migration from rural areas contributed greatly to the growth of this class . Industrial growth was insufficient, however, to absorb the labor surplus produced by the burgeoning urbanization; unemployment and underemployment were severe in urban areas . The urban lower class was socially heterogeneous, and it had little class consciousness . One outstanding characteristic of this group was its commitment to education . Despite economic hardships, urban lower - class parents made a real effort to keep their children in school throughout the primary curriculum . Through education and political participation, some members of the lower class achieved mobility into the middle class . </P> <P> The poorest strata of the urban lower class lived under Haiti's worst sanitary and health conditions . According to the World Bank (see Glossary), one - third of the population of Port - au - Prince lived in densities of more than 1,000 people per hectare in 1976 . The poorest families consumed as few as seven liters of water per person, per day, for cooking, drinking, and cleaning, and they spent about one - fifth of their income to obtain it . For many of these families, income and living conditions worsened in the 1980s . </P>

Role of middle class in revolution of saint domingue