Photo: Man vyi · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale
Channel Islands
Channel Islands places highest on Vulnerable Employment (top 5% worldwide) and lowest on Labour Force Participation Rate (bottom 28%).
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Channel Islands in the Nations Inquiry Country Index
Channel Islands appears in 21 of the statistics tracked here, but is not placed in the Country Index: the index needs a standing on three quarters of its topics, and Channel Islands is measured on too few of them. Every published reading below is unaffected.
At a glance
Land area
198
km²
since 1961
Unemployment
6.169
% of the labour force
since 1991
The newest published figure for each, the year it describes and who published it, with a line showing how it has moved.
01The country
About Channel Islands
The Channel Islands lie in the Gulf of Saint-Malo, nearer Normandy than England, and form two separate Crown Dependencies, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, each self-governing with its own parliament, laws and courts. Both stand outside the United Kingdom; the Crown answers for their defence and foreign relations. At low tide Jersey’s southern bays uncover a wilderness of reefs and rock pools, while Guernsey’s bailiwick takes in Alderney, Herm and Sark, where tractors and horse-drawn carts replace cars.
Neolithic farmers raised passage graves such as La Hougue Bie in Jersey. The islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy, and when King John lost mainland Normandy to France in 1204 they kept faith with the English crown; the islands’ loyal toast names the monarch ‘our Duke’. Victor Hugo spent fifteen years of exile in Guernsey from 1855 and finished Les Misérables there. German forces occupied both bailiwicks from June 1940 until May 1945, and Liberation Day is a holiday in each.
Norman French lives on in Jèrriais and Guernésiais. Each island gave its name to a breed of dairy cow, kept pure for centuries by bans on imported cattle, and Jersey Royal potatoes are planted by hand on steep slopes called côtils. Guernsey once filled glasshouses with tomatoes for Britain, and Jersey’s Battle of Flowers parades floral floats each August. Banks, funds and trust companies in St Helier and St Peter Port carry both economies, alongside tourism and farming.
02Country Index 2026
Where it stands, topic by topic
Strongest first. Each position is Channel Islands’s place among the countries with a standing on that topic, built from a few key statistics chosen to measure different things.
76thof 182
From 3 of 4 key statistics
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
No standing — Channel Islands holds too few of this subject’s key statistics to be placed on it.
Each standing is built from a few key statistics chosen to measure different things. Select a subject for Channel Islands’s readings on it, or see every statistic held for Channel Islands in the table further down this page.
03Highs and lows
Where Channel Islands stands out
The two ends of its own record: every statistic on which Channel Islands sits within ten places of the best or worst in the world, plus its strongest and weakest readings overall. Each is turned into a percentile — its place among every country measured — which is what lets a hunger score and a press-freedom rank be compared at all.
Where Channel Islands does best3
In the top third of all countries measured. 1 is within ten places of the best in the world, in a field of at least 50 countries — marked with that place.
- 10thVulnerable Employmenttop 5%
Position · derived 173rd of 182 · 1 = worst · 4.173 · 2025
world median 28.67 (better)
- Access to Electricitytop 28%
Not ranked by the publisher · 100 · 2024
world median 100 · ▼ 8 pts since 2014
- Access to Electricity, Ruraltop 29%
Not ranked by the publisher · 100 · 2024
world median 100 · ▼ 7 pts since 2014
Where Channel Islands struggles most3
Nothing falls into the world's bottom third — these are Channel Islands's weakest areas even so.
- Labour Force Participation Ratebottom 28%
Position · derived 131st of 182 · 56.36 · 2025
world median 61.66 (worse) · ▼ 9 pts since 2015
- Employment-to-Population Ratiobottom 30%
Position · derived 128th of 182 · 52.88 · 2025
world median 57.72 (worse) · ▼ 11 pts since 2015
- Female Labour Force Participation Ratebottom 34%
Position · derived 120th of 182 · 49.25 · 2025
world median 53.36 (worse) · ▼ 11 pts since 2015
A band is a place among the countries each publisher scores, so Channel Islands can move because other countries moved. See the Country Index for the full method.
04In context
Channel Islands and its neighbours
A position reads best beside the countries around it. Every position below is a place in the world ranking, not within the region.
Shares a land border with
Channel Islands has no land border with another country.
Across Northern Europe
Every country in the sub-region, by its position in the world.
- 2
Denmark - 3
Norway - 4
Finland - 5
Sweden - 11
Ireland - 12
Iceland - 16
United Kingdom - 21
Estonia - 23
Lithuania - 26
Latvia - —Channel Islandsnot placed
- —
Faroe Islandsnot placed - —
Isle of Mannot placed
05The evidence
Every statistic we hold for Channel Islands
Grouped by topic. Each row gives the newest edition’s rank or position, the published value and the year the numbers describe. Select a statistic for this country’s row beside every other country, the world median and every edition.
Work & Labour10
- Employment in AgricultureILO · Employment in agriculture (% of total employment)155th of 182position · derived2.0612025
- Employment in IndustryILO · Employment in industry (% of total employment)152nd of 182position · derived12.652025
- Employment in ServicesILO · Employment in services (% of total employment)6th of 182position · derived85.292025
- Employment-to-Population RatioILO · Employed share of the population aged 15+ (%)128th of 182position · derived52.882025
- Female Labour Force Participation RateILO · Women aged 15+ in the labour force (%)120th of 182position · derived49.252025
- Labour Force Participation RateILO · Population aged 15+ in the labour force (%)131st of 182position · derived56.362025
- Self-Employment RateILO · Self-employed (% of total employment)167th of 182position · derived8.5652025
- Unemployment RateILO · Unemployment (% of labour force)69th of 182position · derived · 1 = worst6.1692025
- Vulnerable EmploymentILO · Vulnerable employment (% of total employment)173rd of 182position · derived · 1 = worst4.1732025
- Youth Unemployment RateILO · Unemployment, ages 15-24 (% of youth labour force)80th of 182position · derived · 1 = worst14.132025
Development & Human Capital2
- Access to ElectricityWorld Bank Group · Population with electricity access (%)top 28%1002024
- Access to Electricity, RuralWorld Bank Group · Rural population with electricity access (%)top 29%1002024
Environment & Sustainability5
- Agricultural EmissionsFAO · Farm-gate emissions (kt CO₂eq)193rd of 193position · derived02023
- Agricultural Irrigated LandFAO · Irrigated share of agricultural land (%)61st of 121position · derived3.662023
- Municipal Solid Waste GenerationWorld Bank Group · Municipal solid waste generated (kg per person per day)97th of 201position · derived · 1 = worst12026
- Organic Agricultural AreaFAO · Organic share of agricultural land (%)56th of 150position · derived2.12024
- Temperature Change on LandFAO · Change in mean land-surface temperature against the country's own 1951–1980 average, °Ctop 27%1.9782025
Gender & Equality1
- Mean Age at First Marriage, WomenUN DESA Population Division · Singulate mean age at marriage, women (years)top 19%29.72019
Mobility & Trade3
- EmigrantsUN DESA Population Division · Migrants from the country living abroad, mid-year (people)bottom 1%3512024
- International MigrantsUN DESA Population Division · International migrants living in the country, mid-year (people)bottom 37%85,5392024
06Method
Sources and how to read them
How to read this page
- The scores and ranks belong to their publishers. Nothing is adjusted, rescaled or re-ranked; each is reproduced from the edition named beside it. Where a row says position · derived, the publisher ranks nobody on that measure and the position is ours, made by ordering the published score.
- Each statistic shows its newest edition, which is not always the edition the Country Index uses: the index pins every source to one data year so its average compares like with like.
How a standing is built from percentiles, why Channel Islands can move because other countries moved, and why publishers measure between 120 and 215 countries each are set out in full in how a standing is made and what a standing cannot tell you.
Sources
- Statistics: 4 publishers, each named beside its numbers, with every edition and licence on the datasets pages.
- Capital, languages, currency, codes: Wikidata, public domain (CC0).
- Map and land borders: Natural Earth, public domain. Borders are de facto — where administration actually changes — not claimed.
Photographs
The photograph of Channel Islands on this page comes from Wikimedia Commons and is shown in greyscale. The photographer and the licence are named beside each one.
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Channel Islands: country statistics, rankings and trends. https://nationsinquiry.com/countries/channel-islands