LAST year saw more deaths than births in the Island for the first time in almost four decades, according to new data.
But it is the figures around inward and outward migration – contained in the latest population update from Statistics Jersey – that are arguably cause for concern.
The figures show that the so-called “bean drain” of working-age Islanders leaving has continued amid high house prices and cost-of-living increases.
The overall population – estimated at around 103,200 – stayed relatively stable last year.
However, the number of people with entitled or entitled-for-work status who left the Island was larger than the number who entered, standing at 1,760 and 850 respectively.
Carl Walker, chair of the Jersey Consumer Council, warned earlier this year, that “more and more” Islanders were moving away due to unaffordable living and housing costs.
Commenting on last year’s figures, he noted that the average price of a Jersey home was recorded as £709,000 in the third quarter of 2022.
He said: “Prices were going crazy, which, coupled with cost-of-living increases that are remaining high, all contributes to making Jersey an unaffordable place to live unless your earnings are at the top level.”
He added: “When we live in an island where a litre of milk costs more than a litre of fuel, questions have to be asked about affordability.”
His concerns echoed those of Deputy Max Andrews, who said the figures “demonstrate that a lot of people are not content to remain in Jersey”.
He also cited housing costs as “one of the big issues”, adding: “It’s [also] the cost of living and the economic climate – with double-digit inflation – that is not helping.”
Meanwhile, Statistics Jersey’s report also shows that there were more deaths than births in 2022, which was the first year that this has occurred since 1983.
Inward migration also returned to the higher levels seen in 2017 and 2018 – before Brexit and the Covid pandemic – and the overall population was, in part, balanced out by net migration for people with registered status. This was at its highest last year, compared to the previous five years that data is available for – and almost three times higher than in 2019 and 2020.
In 2022, 850 more people with registered status moved to Jersey than the number that left.
