Statistics Jersey produces and publishes statistics. Our work informs decision making by government, policy makers, public services, organisations and individuals.
The teams
Statistics Jersey has five specialist teams, each focused on a different area.
- Economic statistics team: runs mandatory and voluntary business surveys, and uses administrative data, to provide insights that describe the economy.
- Social statistics team: runs voluntary household and school surveys to track population behaviours, opinions and lifestyles of our population. This team also maintains the Island Outcome Indicators and our website.
- Development and large projects team: improves data collection and analysis methods, and manages larger scale surveys, like the census and the Living Costs and Household Income survey.
- Linked administrative data team: enhances the use of administrative data to produce high quality statistics on Jersey’s population and businesses.
- Jersey Statistical System support team: supports public authorities in publishing accurate, high quality statistics, promoting transparency and collaboration across the statistical community.
The Chief Statistician
The Chief Statistician leads Statistics Jersey, operationally and professionally across the teams listed above, as well as providing professional leadership to data analysts and statisticians across the Jersey Statistical System.
The Chief Statistician operates independently, free from political or external pressures. The person in this role is not employed by the States Employment Board, as other Government of Jersey employees are, but instead the role is a ‘corporation sole’, The Chief Statistician can publicly comment on the use and accuracy of statistics.
The Chief Statistician has a role in co-ordinating the statistical outputs from across public authorities, in particular ‘Tier 1’ statistics. They also ensure that statisticians and analysts employed by a public authority uphold high professional statistical standards.
As head of Statistics Jersey, the Chief Statistician is responsible for the production and publication of the majority of official statistics in Jersey.
The current Chief Statistician
The Chief Statistician for Jersey is Ian Cope.
Ian joined Government of Jersey in January 2021 as Acting Chief Statistician and took up the role permanently in December 2021. Ian previously worked for the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) for 29 years and provided consultancy support to censuses in New Zealand, Albania, and Pacific Islands.
Whilst at the ONS Ian had spells in National Accounts and economic statistics; led business and household surveys; and population estimates, Ian led the operational aspects of the 2011 Census for England and Wales, and was the Census Director for the 2021 Census.
During his time with Statistics Jersey, Ian has overseen the Jersey 2021 Census, the development of the use of linked administrative data to produce population and migration statistics; and was on the Steering Group that brought forwards proposed amendments to the Statistics and Census (2018) Jersey legislation which, among other things, increased the independence and accountability of Statistics Jersey.