State of the NationGuernsey · Quality of life
16 indicators, each tagged by the kind of evidence behind it. Where the honest answer is that nobody measures it, that is what this page prints.
The picture splits. Three measures moved the right way. Loneliness fell to 16.9% in 2023 from 18.6% in 2018. The share of people saying cost had not stopped them using a health service rose 5.7 points to 58.4% since 2018. Avoidable mortality fell to 158 per 100,000 in 2022–24 from 186 in 2019–21, although the report itself cautions that the confidence intervals are too wide to call that fall real.
Four moved the other way. Real median household income was down 10.0% in 2022 against 2017. Housing took 30.5% of net income in 2022, up from 24.3% in 2018. Relative poverty was 18.9% in 2022, against a low of 16.5% in 2019. The share of the population without secure housing rose from 1.2% in 2016 to 1.9% in 2023.
And some cannot be answered at all. There is no official food-bank statistic. No population figure has been published since December 2023. Every figure on this page is dated by its reference period, not by the year of the publication that carried it, which is why several of them are older than they look.
Economic
Income, housing costs, food prices and whether households have anything left over. Prices are measured quarterly and published on time. Household income has two comparable points in total, and the next edition has been deferred with no announced date.
-10.0%
2022, against 2017
Median gross household income £55,116, up 5.3% in cash but down 10.0% in real terms since 2017. Only two comparable points exist. Gini 0.34, down from 0.37.
Next edition deferred, no announced date.
30.5%
2022, housing share of net income
Up from 24.3% in 2018, the highest bar on the report’s own OECD comparison. Median income after tax, social security and housing costs: £37,197. Lowest quintile £10,284 against highest £106,215.
£2,138 / mo
Q2 2026, next release 10 Nov 2026
Local Market advertised rent, down 1.5% on the quarter, up 3.1% on the year, up 34.2% over five years. Continuous quarterly series since 2009.
14.1×
Q3 2024, two years stale
The bulletin states the table has not been updated since Q3 2024 because more recent earnings data is unavailable. The ratio peaked at 16.0 in Q1 2023.
Blocked until the earnings bulletin resumes. Live substitute: price to annual rent, 23.3× at Q2 2026.
+3.2%
June 2026, next release 27 Oct 2026
Food is a standalone quarterly RPI group, index 180.5 on a December 2004 base. Shop-bought food is up 80.5% in 21 years. Eating out ran hotter at +6.3%.
41%
2023–24, baseline with no comparator
Hold no savings or less than one month’s income. 11% make ends meet with difficulty, rising to 41% among affordable-market renters and partial owners.
No national-accounts savings rate is published at any cadence.
Health
The clearest good news on the page sits alongside the clearest bad news. Avoidable deaths fell and cost barriers eased, while every secondary-care waiting-time target was missed.
158 / 100k
2022–24, provisional
307 avoidable deaths, 16% of all deaths, down from 186 per 100,000 in 2019–21. Ten rolling three-year points back to 2013–15.
The report cautions that confidence intervals are too wide to call the fall real. The drop in years of life lost is statistically supported.
26.8%
2023, low wellbeing among 16 to 24s
Against 12.1% across the population. No woman aged 16 to 24 recorded high wellbeing, against 18.3% of men. Own home 8.3% against affordable housing 28.1%.
The headline is sample-relative and cannot be charted against 2018. On fixed England thresholds it is 10.5% against 10.1%, no significant change.
4 in 10
2023, improving since 2018
58.4% said cost had not stopped them using a health service, up 5.7 points from 52.7% in 2018. Dentist 26.8% deterred, down from 32.3%. GP 22.3%, broadly unchanged. 48.1% self-pay.
57–88%
2025, against a 95% target
Every waiting-time target missed. Emergency Department 88%, radiology 87% having been 95% in 2024, outpatients 64%, inpatients 57%. Delayed transfers of care ran at 298 median days a month against a target under 100.
The 2025 report states it is the last in this format. New framework and revised definitions from 2027.
Demographic
One indicator, and it has no current number. Whether working-age islanders are staying is the question underneath most of the others on this page.
No figure since December 2023
last published 29 Oct 2024, no restart date
Under-40s were 44.0% of the population at end-2023, down from 49.0% in 2007. A fall of 1,465 people in absolute terms while the total population grew.
The States said in July 2025 that outward migration had been under-stated and the next publication could revise the population down by up to 3%. That revision has not landed.
Budget 2027
Published 6 October 2026. Two Major Projects affecting leisure and amenity are named: one approved, one still at design stage. Neither carries a published 2027 cash figure.
Named major projects affecting leisure and amenity
Beau Sejour is the island’s only public leisure centre and the Guernsey Dairy supplies all local liquid milk. Neither carries a published 2027 capital figure in the Budget itself: Beau Sejour is held at Strategic Outline Case stage, meaning no money is committed until the business case clears the Capital Prioritisation Framework. The report does not say when the SOC will come to the Assembly.
A States project crosses into Major Projects at £3m. Para 7.4 (Beau Sejour) and 7.33 (Dairy).
How to read this page
The tier is part of the finding. A live series can be argued about. An indicator with no series cannot be argued about at all, because there is nothing to argue with.
Regular official series, updates at least annually
3 of 16 indicators
Real official data on a multi-year survey cycle
10 of 16 indicators
Published figure frozen upstream, or needs constructing
2 of 16 indicators
Nothing usable is published
1 of 16 indicators
Sources, all States of Guernsey unless noted Household income & expenditure; Indicators of Poverty; Wellbeing Surveys; Residential property prices; Retail Prices Index; Secondary healthcare contract KPIs; Population. 2 of the 16 indicators carry no link, because their source is not published as a standalone page on gov.gg. Every figure is dated by its reference period rather than by publication year, which is the most common way this evidence base misleads. A recently badged report can be carrying data several years old.
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Social
Poverty, housing insecurity and connection
Three of these five have a comparator to measure against. Loneliness improved. Poverty and homelessness did not.
Relative poverty
18.9%
2022, annual series from 2014
Below 60% of median income after housing costs. A nine-point annual run: 22.3% in 2014, a low of 16.5% in 2019, rising since. The threshold was £22,318.
Next edition suspended, no announced date.
Food insecurity
13.9%
2023, first wave, no back-series
Hit one or more food-insecurity indicators in six months, 5.7% within a month. 27.9% of 25 to 34s against 2.9% of over-75s, and 19.0% in affordable housing against 2.2% of owner-occupiers.
Food-bank usage
No official statistic
charity figures only, four incompatible units
714 households and 68 families a week in 2025, via a funder’s annual review. Separately, 3,190 requests for help in 2023 against 2,474 in 2022, via the local press.
Units shift between sources, from requests to people to visits to households. A one-visit-per-month cap means every figure understates need by construction.
Homelessness
1.9%
2023, annual series from 2016
Population without secure housing, up from 1.2% in 2016. An official indicator, built in response to the 2022 Community Foundation report. The waiting list reached 384 households at end-2024, up from 264 in 2019.
No net additional affordable units were created during 2025.
Loneliness
16.9%
2023, against 18.6% in 2018
Lonely often or all the time, a statistically significant fall. But intense social loneliness among over-75s rose 10.6 points, from 16.9% to 27.5%.