Population fall triggers urgent States action
OVER 650 more people left Guernsey in the last two years than arrived, latest population figures have revealed, as investigations are launched by the States into measures that could address the slump.
Chief Minister Jonathan Le Tocq said Treasury and Commerce and Employment had been tasked with looking at different 'options and levers' that could address negative net migration, which was minus 661 during 2013-2014, with particular focus on the 'working population' levels.
He said it would be part of a new population policy to be brought to the States as a matter of urgency before the end of this political term by the Policy Council.
'They will come back with options and levers that may be needed to affect a future policy on population,' he said. 'We need to do that this side of the election.
'My feeling is that you can see what has happened in Alderney and Sark, where the economic effect there, by a decline in population, has been huge.'
The chief minister revealed the plans for a new population policy with today's official unveiling of Guernsey's new, and the world's first, rolling electronic census.
Figures, in its inaugural annual report, showed that immigration in 2014 was 3,601, but emigration was 3,798, giving net migration for the year of minus 197.
In 2013, even more people left than arrived, with immigration at 3,845 and emigration at 4,309.
