The island’s population grew in the first half of the year - but most of the growth was among the over-65s.

A range of data and indicators about the performance of the island’s economy up to the end of June has been released in the latest quarterly report by the Cabinet Office’s economic affairs team.

It shows the total population increased by 308 people compared with 12 months ago, while the number of under 65s increased by 94.

The latest census showed that the island’s population fell from 84,497 in 2011 to 83,314 in 2016.

Since then, it has grown again although the number of working age under-65s, on whose tax revenues the government relies to pay for services, shrunk for most of 2018 although it has been in positive territory since the start of the year.

The quarterly report also gives data on the labour market, although the figures may now have been overtaken by a number of redundancies announced in the past month in financial services and e-gaming.

It shows that employment has grown steadily since February 2016. At the end of June this year, he number of people in employment was 35,801, whilst those in self-employment was 8,410.

The number of people registered as unemployed was 302, and the 12 month average level of unemployment was 334.

Transactions

Data on the property market has not been updated since the last quarterly report. The report explains that this is due to changes in land registration fees which came into place on September 1 2019, so that many transactions were not lodged and this would have significantly distorted any statistics produced for the quarter.

Graphs in the end of March quarterly report suggested the number of property transactions has been falling since September last year.

The Cabinet Office has also issued the latest figures on national income which show the island’s economy grew by 3.6% in real terms.

But the accounts relate to the year 2017-18 and do not necessarily reflect the current position.

Total gross domestic product increased to £5.26bn from £4.88bn that year.

E-gaming company and personal income and corporate profits of the insurance sector were the main reasons for the significant growth. Other professional services were also a significant driver of growth during the year.

The growth in e-gaming during 2017-18 meant that it continued to be the largest sector within the economy during that year with a sector share of 21.1%, followed by insurance (17.6%), ICT (9.1%) and other financial and business services (8%).

But while growth in the economy was driven by 10 sectors, the remaining sectors contracted including agriculture (down 27%), wholesale distribution (down 25%), banking (down 15%) and engineering (down 11%).