10 April 2024
Statistics Jersey has today published the 2023 Jersey Better Life Index report.
Over the last decade there has been a drive globally to move away from purely economic measures, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as the indicators of a nation’s well-being and progress. Approaches which draw on social and environmental, as well as economic, factors are now a common international objective. Importance is also placed on asking how individuals rate their own lives and surroundings, rather than purely focusing on objective measures of well-being.
In this context, by following the widely used “Better Life Index” framework developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Jersey’s well-being is measured and compared across 11 dimensions of well-being. The OECD is an international organisation, comprising 38 member countries and two partner countries, which has the mission of promoting policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
A Better Life Index for Jersey was first produced and published in 2013. Subsequent reports presented updated measures for Jersey and the OECD nations and also a comparison of the Island with more than 400 sub-national regions of the OECD.
This latest report represents a further update of the national and regional comparisons using the most recently available data from the OECD. The OECD data relates to varying reference years across indicators, with data for Jersey relating to either the same reference year or the closest year for which data is available.
On a national level, Jersey:
- had an overall Better Life Index score of 6.4 out of 10 (unchanged since 2021), ranking 26th out of 41 nations
- placed below the United Kingdom and France, and slightly below the OECD average
- dropped 2 places in the overall ranking compared to 2021, driven by improvements in other nations
- the largest contributing factor was a decrease of 11 places in the life satisfaction ranking compared to 2021, which was also due to improvements in other nations
- ranked in the top ten for community, personal safety and health status
- ranked bottom for civic engagement (based on voter turnout in the 2022 election)
gov.je