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Few would deny that 2020 was a worrying year for many, but a new survey has added some data to show just what an anxious time it was.
It shows that 3 in 5 islanders in Jersey said that they had experienced at least a "moderate" level of anxiety, mostly about the pandemic.
The figures come in the latest part of Island Global Research’s 'COVID-19 – One Year On' survey of 1,264 residents across Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
In a section on wellbeing in the report, it was shown that 60% of Jersey residents responding (37% moderately and 23% largely) had felt stress and anxiety across the past year.
Pictured: The report also asked islanders about their rates of loneliness and isolation.
These figures were similar to the other crown dependencies, with half of the respondents in the Isle of Man and and 58% in Guernsey expressing the same sentiment.
On the reasons for the feelings of anxiety across the islands, the health of family and friends and news about covid were cited as key drivers.
The report also looks at the way in which both business and commerce has changed for islanders, measuring the changes in spending activity and income.
In terms of spending, almost 2 in 5 of Jersey respondents (38%) experienced a loss in income in the past year because of the pandemic, a similar figure to both Guernsey (41%) and the Isle of Man (33%).
Of those most likely to report a decrease in income were the under-65s, households with children aged under 16 and the self-employed.
Similarly, nearly 3 out of 5 (59%) of respondents from Jersey reported a reduction in household spending - indeed, this was reflected across the board, with only 15% of respondents across all three islands reporting an increase in their spending.
Pictured: Almost 2 in 5 Jersey respondents reported a loss of income over the past year.
On the topic of business and work, there was a split between perspectives of how the pandemic had impacted the workplace - almost a third (32)% of Jersey respondents said demand had increased, just under a quarter (23%) said there had been no change, a quarter said it had been reduced, 10% said they had been closed/suspended, and 10% gave a noncommittal ‘other’ response.
Of these, the report illustrates that non-essential retail, hospitality and leisure were the hardest hit between the respondents.
However, many of these adversely affected Jersey businesses also remained optimistic, with 67% saying that they expect business to return to pre-covid levels.
Outside of business, the survey also reflected the change in broader lifestyle that lockdown has brought about.
A quarter of respondents across the three islands reported using online banking more frequently than they had before - in Jersey particularly, this shift was prominent, with nearly a third (31%) saying they had used it more, especially over-65s.
Over half (51%) of Jersey respondents also said that they used online shopping from off-island retailers more than before.
Pictured: The survey measured life satisfaction rates from 2020 through to 2021.
Gauging the current mood of all three islands as of March 2021, out of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, Jersey respondents were most likely to rate their life 8-10 on a scale of 10, with nearly 2 in 5 (37%) choosing the option.
This was only a minor difference compared to Guernsey’s 36%, but a much larger contrast with the Isle of Man, which only had 24% of residents pick this option.
Though these figures are supposed to measure changes within their tracking sample, IGR emphasised that "the results are not intended to be representative of the total population of each island, but the profile of respondents is similar to last year’s surveys and covers a wide cross-section of island residents."
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