The Guernsey Business Census · Revisions
What changed, and when
The census is re-counted hourly, and discovery moves its figures a little every day — the coverage panel says by how much. This page records the other kind of change: a rule altered, a pass over the data that re-classified or retired records, a section added or a figure withdrawn. Each entry quotes the figures as they stood on the day, so a number you took from the page last month can be traced to the number it is now.
- Method
The census starts recording when a record enters or leaves the count
From this date every change to a record's publication status or defunct flag is logged with the time the census recorded it, and each frozen edition keeps a roster of the organisations it counted. Together they let the next edition publish what changed — discovered, merged as a duplicate, retired as out of scope, recorded as ceased — instead of an unexplained net change. No history exists before this date and none was invented.
- Published
Copy and ordering fixes ahead of the first edition
The six quotable figures now come before the coverage panel. The percentage-point gap card says “pts”. A rank at or near the middle of the sixteen sectors reads “9th of 16” rather than “8th-lowest”. Chapter parish headings name the sector rather than “them”. Two chapter contents lines that had stopped being true were rewritten. The homepage count now excludes records flagged as no longer trading, matching the census.
- Data
Quality pass across the corpus: duplicates merged, out-of-scope records retired, secondary sectors re-verified
Between 20 and 23 September a review of the records themselves merged duplicates, retired records that were not trading organisations, and re-verified every secondary sector tag under a stricter rule. The count moved from 3,680 (3 September) to 3,616; the share of organisations working in two or more sectors fell from 28 % to 15 %; Home & Property rose from 554 to 593 and Community & Public Services from 473 to 543 through re-classification. Figures written from the 3 September snapshot are superseded by the live page.
- Published
Single suppliers and the capability tail added
A published list of eight essential services with the organisations on record supplying each, anchored to States ownership, contracts or licences; and the distribution of how many organisations carry each capability, with the empty groups named. The census has carried a draft mark since this date.
- Method
Section headings and standfirsts take their tier from the module
A heading is a headline sentence, so an indicative module now carries a neutral heading and its figure only in the badged caption; a suppressed module shows no figure above the gap. The headline strip took the findings register's top pegs. Thirteen sub-sector names had their ampersands restored (“Clubs & Societies”).
- Data
Coverage re-measured after the search sweep; sixteen sector chapters published
Capture–recapture against Google's business listings, with every organisation minted from those listings excluded: an estimated 4,877–5,990 trading organisations (central 5,415), recall 68 %. The estimate rose because the sweep found organisations the listings do not carry. Each sector gained a chapter at its own URL.
- Method
Coverage measured on an independent pair for the first time
The earlier constant (recall 47.3 %, measured 13 August against a list later used to add organisations) was retired. Coverage is now measured only between two enumerations that stay independent, stored as a dated row, and re-measured at each edition rather than assumed.
- Published
The census in its present form
Seventeen sections, every figure carrying its denominator and tier, a methodology page, two data files and the editions calendar. Figures before this date were a single page without tiers and are not comparable.
Quoting a figure
Cite a frozen edition rather than the live page wherever you can: an edition never changes after it is cut, and this log tells you what has moved since. The editions calendar lists them. Spotted something wrong? Corrections ship continuously and are recorded here when they move a figure — press@island.gg.