States of Guernsey Rolling Electronic Census

Award winning innovation

Developed by Digimap, the pioneering States of Guernsey Rolling Electronic Census Project was awarded the NextGen Digital Challenge ‘Innovation Award for Central Government’ in 2016.

The systems draws information from existing sources to generate statistics about the population of Guernsey. Whereas a traditional census could only be justified every 5-10 years, the rolling electronic census is far less labour-intensive.

As a result, comprehensive Guernsey population statistics will be available more frequently than in other jurisdictions and at a lower cost. Regular bulletins are published, covering population, economic and demographic data in addition to updates to population trends.

Reports published by the Policy Council using information from the Rolling Electronic Census now provide a much stronger evidence base for decision making in many spheres.

Helen Walton, Rolling Electronic Census Project Manager, said:

“It has been a really exciting project to be involved in; no other jurisdiction has done this as far as I’m aware, so I’m really proud of what we have achieved. Information that previously would only have been updated once every 5 or 10 years, after each resource-hungry census, is now available quarterly at the click of a button. It costs less than a traditional census and means we can turn the information around and put it into the public domain more quickly and frequently.

You will see changes and additions to several of our regular publications over the coming months as we incorporate the answers to our most frequently asked questions and more. But, if we’ve missed some particular analysis that you would find useful or if anyone has any questions, please get in touch (our contact details are included in all of our publications).”

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