Information about Guernsey
Where is it? Guernsey is situated 30 miles west of the Normandy coast in France and 75 miles south of Weymouth in England and lies in the Gulf of St Malo.
How big is it? The island is approximately 24 sq. miles (63 square kilometers)
How many people live in Guernsey? According to the last Census held in 2006, the population in Guernsey stands at 65,409.
The official language is English, but French is also widely spoken, and a Norman-French dialect is often used in rural districts.
Economy
Guernsey receives no grant of any kind from the United Kingdom Government and the island has a self-supporting economy with its own income tax and customs and excise services which enables the it to enjoy a low taxation. Today the mainstays of its £1,386 million Gross National Product (2003) are financial services, tourism, horticulture, farming, fishing and light industry. The offshore banking, insurance and fund management activities, strictly regulated by law, have made the island a major international financial centre, providing about fifty-five per cent of the island’s income from abroad.
As tourist economy in Guernsey has grown steadily in popularity since World War II, but the authorities have been watchful to see that the island does not become too commercialized. The island was a pioneer of hotel grading in the British Isles, adopting its own ‘Crown’ system with all hotels, guest houses and self catering accommodation being officially registered, inspected and graded annually. This policy has helped to develop tourism into £70 million industry worth in the region of, catering for some 361,000 visitors (2003) of which it is estimated that some 20,000 will visit the Island for sporting purposes.
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