Guernsey is best of British in survey of well-being

In the measurements of household disposable income, low unemployment, low homicide rate, voter turnout and broadband access, the island claimed first place compared to other British regions.

On life expectancy it came second.

When the study was broadened to include OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] regions, the island came top for its unemployment and homicide rates.

The results have been revealed in the Guernsey annual better life indicators report, however the data refers to 2019 and earlier, so is pre-Covid.

The intention is to give a broad picture of the living conditions experienced by the population, since these are not always illustrated well by measures of economic growth, such as GDP.

Different measures are used within the framework to assess overall wellbeing levels.

There was only one measure where Guernsey performed poorly and this was in housing expenditure, which includes rent, water, fuel, furnishing, household equipment and home routine maintenance.

The island was found to have very high housing expenditure, at 24% of household income.

This meant that it languished near the bottom of the OECD table, ranking joint 34th out of 37.

When 2,600 people in Guernsey and Alderney were asked to evaluate their life satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 8, the result was that 80% of respondents gave the answer of 5 or more.

Some 86% of those 2,600 people said they had plenty of people they could rely on when they had problems.

Household income was high relative to OECD jurisdictions.