EXPLAINED: How much are islanders spending per week?

Wednesday 01 November 2023

Islanders' spending habits have been revealed in a new report, showing how rises in housing, transport and food costs have pushed average weekly expenditure to £901 per week.

Published by Statistics Jersey yesterday, the data is the result of an island-wide survey which takes place every five years.

The most recent iteration of the study involved around 1,300 randomly selected households and was cut short in March 2020 due to the covid-19 outbreak. However, a new survey started in October 2021, and ran until November 2022.

Here's what it found...

The key findings...

• In 2021/2022 average total household expenditure in Jersey was £901 per week, compared to £761 in 2014/2015.

• Spending was greatest on housing, fuel and power, at £266 per week, accounting for almost a third (30%) of total household expenditure.

• Transport and food and non-alcoholic drinks were the next highest spending categories (£112 and £101 per week, respectively).

• Average total weekly household expenditure ranged from £389 in the lowest of the five quintiles of gross income to £1,799 in the highest.

• By tenure, households living in social rental accommodation spent the least (£436 per week) and owner-occupier households with a mortgage spent the most (£1,457 per week).

• By household structure, average household expenditure ranged from £423 per week for single pensioners to £1,365 per week for couple households with at least one dependent child.

• After adjusting for inflation, average household spending in 2021 / 2022 was 3% lower than in 2014 /2015.

How does Jersey compare with the UK?

The average total weekly expenditure of households in Jersey was 66% greater than in the UK, compared to a figure of 43% in 2014/2015.

The biggest difference was for expenditure on housing, fuel and power; with Jersey households spending £98 per week (59%) more, on average, than those in the UK.

Pictured: Jersey's average household expenditure compared with the UK. (Statistics Jersey)

Housing, fuel and power accounted for the greatest proportion of spending in both jurisdictions, at almost a third of total expenditure.

Households in the UK spent a greater proportion on transport (14%) compared to Jersey households (12%), while households in Jersey spent a greater proportion of total expenditure on health and education compared to UK households.

You can read the full report here.