Jersey · Overview
Where Jersey actually stands.
The headline numbers behind every States Member’s promises, the problems piling up, and the genuine strengths still working in the island’s favour.
The problems
Where Jersey is falling behind
Population, healthcare, housing and the public finances, measured against the island's own targets and figures.
Under-40 population share, 2011→2024
-0.0 pts
Jersey's under-40 share of the population fell from 48.3% in 2011 to 42.8% in 2024 - a steady annual decline, no gaps. Unlike Guernsey's own population series (frozen since December 2023, with no restart date), this one is live and current: Statistics Jersey updates it every year.
Statistics Jersey, annual population estimates by age and sex, 2024
A&E patients seen within 4 hours (Apr 26)
0.0%
Health and Care Jersey's latest reading. Guernsey and NHS England both measure against the same 95% four-hour standard - a benchmark Jersey itself has never adopted, so there is no official target this figure is being measured against here, only its neighbours'.
Health and Care Jersey, Quality and Performance Report, Apr 2026
People supported for homelessness, Q1 2026
0
Up from 267 in Q4 2025. The Minister for Housing’s own quarterly count has run since October 2024; referrals from HMP La Moye have been rising too, which the report reads as a lack of provision for prison leavers specifically.
Government of Jersey, "Homelessness in Jersey" quarterly report, Q1 2026; reported by Jersey Evening Post, 25 Aug 2026
States' forecast operating deficit, 2026
£0m
Jersey's Fiscal Policy Panel expects the operating balance - day-to-day income minus day-to-day spending - to tip into deficit in 2026, even after 2025's headline surplus. Since 2019, income has grown 49% while day-to-day spending has grown 58%, producing cumulative deficits of £345m over that period once capital spending is included.
Jersey Fiscal Policy Panel, via Policy Centre Jersey, "Jersey's Public Finances"; States of Jersey 2025 Annual Report and Accounts
The positives
What's still working
Not everything is going wrong. These are the genuine strengths the island can still point to, with the caveats that matter attached.
States' 2025 surplus
£0m
After investment returns took the States’ share of the Common Investment Fund to £4.15bn, up from £3.87bn - though the underlying operating surplus before depreciation was a much narrower £50m, and the Fiscal Policy Panel forecasts an operating deficit in 2026 (see above).
Government of Jersey 2025 Annual Report and Accounts, published 17 Apr 2026
Registered Actively Seeking Work
0
Jun 2026, the most recent month published - against a Jersey workforce of roughly 64,680 jobs (Dec 2025) and far below the COVID-era peak of 2,290 (May 2020). Jersey does not publish an official unemployment rate; this is the raw headcount its own Back to Work service reports monthly.
Government of Jersey, "Back to Work" - Monthly Registered Actively Seeking Work Statistics, opendata.gov.je
Financial services, share of GVA
0.0%
£2,637.8m of 2024's £6,858.5m total GVA, produced by just 17% of the island's full-time-equivalent jobs (10,133 FTE) - the productivity gap that anchors Jersey's whole economy.
opendata.gov.je, "National Accounts: GVA and GDP" - GVA by sub-sector, 2024 values
Standard corporate tax rate
0%
0% for most companies, 10% for financial services companies - the structure Jersey introduced in 2009 and Guernsey and the Isle of Man both later copied. Utilities and large retailers above £750k profit pay up to 20% instead.
Government of Jersey, company tax rates · gov.je
Real growth per year, 2013–2023
0.0%/yr
Jersey grew 2.3% a year in real terms between 2013 and 2023 - almost four times Guernsey's 0.6%, and above the OECD average of 2.0%. The clearest structural advantage either Channel Island can currently point to.
States of Guernsey GVA/GDP Bulletin 2023; Statistics Jersey; World Bank (OECD members) - illustrative comparison, not a forecast