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This update releases new estimates of the purchase value of goods imported to St Helena during the 2024/25 financial year, and estimates of the value of visitor expenditure in 2024 – an export of services.

The detailed data tables used to prepare this release can be downloaded here.

Total value of goods imported

The total value of goods imported to St Helena during the 2024/25 financial year is estimated to be £30.7 million, an increase of £5.9 million compared to the previous year, or 23.8%.

Note that the value of goods is ‘free on board’, which means that it excludes freight and insurance charges. Value-added taxes, sales taxes and other fees paid by importers are also excluded, since these statistics are compiled from declarations made by importers to the St Helena Customs authorities, which do not require these additional fees to be included. It is also not adjusted for inflation; a common term for this is that the valuation is in ‘current prices’.

Type of goods imported

Goods imported to St Helena predominantly fall into one of four major groups: machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods and articles, food, and mineral fuel and lubricants. Diesel fuel, which is used in St Helena’s electricity power station, is typically among the largest single items each year, arriving by fuel tanker in regular consignments. In 2024/25 there was a large increase in the value of machinery and transport equipment, resulting from investments in transport and communications infrastructure.

Country of purchase of imported goods

Most goods imported to St Helena are purchased in the United Kingdom or South Africa, reflecting the close ties between St Helena and the UK, and the historical cargo shipping routes between Cape Town in South Africa and Jamestown in St Helena. Historically, St Helenians tend to spend roughly the same in the UK and South Africa on imported goods, although slightly more has been spent in South Africa in recent years than in the UK; this may reflect the relative weakness of the Rand compared to the Pound and the lower cost of freight, making South African goods cheaper to purchase. Imports from other countries were mostly mineral fuel (diesel and petrol), and specialised equipment and transport machinery.

Exports of services (visitor expenditure)

Exports of St Helena have historically been thought of in terms of goods, such as fish, coffee, and stamps. However spending by visitors to the island is also an export: exports are purchases by non-residents of St Helena of both goods and services. Visitor expenditure far exceeds the value of goods exports, but estimates are not precise and so are given as a range to indicate the level of uncertainty. In 2024, visitors to St Helena are estimated to have spent between £4.9 and £6.7 million (note that the values in the chart and given in current prices, i.e. not adjusted for inflation).

Range estimates of visitor expenditure, 2024

Methodology

Concepts and definitions: The compilation methodology for international trade statistics on St Helena uses the guidelines published by the United Nations Statistics Division. Generally, imports and exports are transactions involving the exchange of goods or services between residents and non-residents of St Helena. For goods, imports and exports are usually recorded whenever a commodity crosses St Helena’s boundaries, typically a border entry point, or a ‘bonded’ warehouse (a place where goods liable to import taxes are stored until those taxes are paid). For the purpose of St Helena’s import statistics, the date of customs duty assessment is usually taken to be a reasonable estimate of the date at which the commodity has effectively crossed the border. Since goods are counted as imported when they enter the domestic economy, goods imported into bonded warehouses are only counted when they are released from bond. Goods imported after being temporarily exported for repair are also not included. Similarly, machinery imported on a temporary basis, for example to support construction products, is not included, if it can be identified. This update focuses on the imports of goods but it should be noted that St Helena’s trade with other countries also includes imports and exports of services. Imports of services include medical treatment and training programmes abroad, communications services, and services delivered by persons visiting the Island but who do not live on St Helena. St Helena’s service exports include spending on St Helena by tourists and short-term visitors; estimates of this non-resident spending on St Helena are available in the detailed data file, here.

Data source: Statistics on the imports of goods are derived primarily from the administrative records resulting from the Customs process, particularly the legal requirement for a declaration to be made to the Customs authorities whenever goods are imported or exported. These declarations are stored in a computer system called ASYCUDA, managed by the Customs Office. Although the Statistics Office conducts a number of consistency checks to identify and correct valuation and classification errors, the data quality of statistics on international trade depends on the quality of information entered into the ASYCUDA system by importers and by Customs officials. The quality of the information collected by the Customs Office on the quantities of commodities imported does not currently permit the calculation of trade statistics on volumes or quantities.

Valuation method: Values are reported in ‘current’ prices, that is, the value recorded at the time of the customs transaction, without any adjustment for price inflation (i.e. the changes in prices of commodities over time). On St Helena, the value recorded by importers for the assessment of import taxes and duties is ‘free-on-board’ (or FOB), rather than inclusive of ‘cost, insurance and freight’ (or CIF); import statistics are therefore also based on the FOB valuation of goods. This means that St Helena’s import statistics are based on the invoice value paid by the importer in the country of purchase, and they do not include the costs of shipment, or any duties or taxes paid in that country. Goods purchased in foreign currencies are valued in Pounds based on the exchange rate used for the Customs transaction, rather than the exchange rate used by the importer when they purchased the goods. If the rate used for the Customs transaction is not known, the average monthy ‘spot’ rate published by the Bank of England is used.

Classification of commodities: Commodities are classified by importers on their customs declarations using an eight digit tariff code, which is based on the international six digit ‘Harmonised System’ classification maintained by the World Customs Organisation. In this report, and for the presentation of St Helena’s trade statistics generally, the Standard International Trade Classification is also used; this was developed for analytical purposes by the United Nations Statistics Division, while the Harmonised System is primarily designed for the administration of Customs systems. There are ‘correspondence tables’ between these two classification systems maintained by the United Nations, which enables St Helena’s trade statistics to be analysed and presented using either classification.

Frequency: The trade statistics in this update are presented by financial year, and the Statistics Office currently analyses the ASYCUDA database every year. However, data are computed by quarter, which can allow calculation of trade statistics by calendar year, or by quarter if required. Any analysis of quarterly import statistics should be made with care, however, since they can be affected by the timing of cargo shipments and other issues.

The latest provisional estimates have been released for the numbers of passenger arrivals and departures to and from St Helena, up to the end of June 2025.

Note: Estimates of the arrivals of St Helenians and those arriving for leisure are not yet available for January 2025 onwards, due to a change in immigration arrival procedures.

Arrivals

In June 2025, there were an estimated 278 arrivals, with 215 arriving by air; this compares with 196 arrivals in June 2024, with 184 arriving by air.

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During the last 12 months (July 2024 to June 2025) there have been 5,298 arrivals, compared to 4,344 in the same period a year ago – a 22% increase.

Departures

In June 2025 there were an estimated 295 departures from the island, 17 more than the number of arrivals. During the last 12 months (July 2024 to June 2025), there were a total of 5,261 departures, compared to 4,425 in the same period a year ago – an increase of 18.9%.

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Get the data

A file in Excel format with detailed monthly statistics on arrivals and departures to June 2025 can be downloaded here.

The St Helena Statistics Office has released new provisional estimates of the number of people on St Helena by age, sex, residency and nationality, and the number of births and deaths, up to the end of December 2024. Estimates of selected indicators are also available up to June 2025, wherever data are available to enable calculation.

At the end of December 2024 there were an estimated 4,514 people on the island, an increase of 226 from the end of November, when there were an estimated 4,288. Of the people on the island, 3,941 people were estimated to be residents, and 573 were estimated to be visitors. This compares to an estimated 3,991 residents on the island at the end of November, and 4,099 on the island a year ago, at the end of December 2023.

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Compared to a year ago, at the end of December 2023, there has been a decrease in the number of resident children on-island (0-14 years) from 518 to 487, and a decrease in those of roughly working age (15-64 years) from 2,434 to 2,299. But the number of people aged 65 and over increased, from 1,147 to 1,155. The Old Aged Dependency Ratio of the resident on-island population (the number of those 65 and over compared to those of roughly working age) was 50.2 at the end of December 2024.

The chart illustrates the estimated St Helenian resident population at the end of December 2024 by five-year age groups and sex. The age group with the smallest number of St Helenians is 0-4 (120), followed closely by 20-24 (127) and 25-29 (137); the age groups with the most are 55-59 and 60-64, with 340 and 339 people respectively.

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Please note that St Helenians are no longer asked for their residence status when they enter St Helena, which means that the classification of St Helenian arrivals into residents and visitors may be less reliable than in the past, and data revisions are more likely.

A data file with monthly population estimates to the end of December 2024 can be downloaded here. The file includes population totals by age, sex, residency and nationality, and the number of arrivals, departures, births, and deaths.

New estimates of economic activity on St Helena for 2023/24, and revisions to earlier years

This release presents new estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI) for 2023/24, and revisions to previously published estimates from 2017/18 onward.

The statistics and indicators presented in this Bulletin can be downloaded in Excel format here.

All estimates presented in this release should be considered provisional: GDP estimation is a complex task and developing appropriate methods and data sources is an ongoing program of work.

Gross Domestic Product

GDP is a key indicator of economic activity used around the world: on St Helena it measures the total value of all the goods and services produced on the island during a year. For 2023/24, GDP at ‘market prices’ (which is the measure usually used) is estimated to be £39.4 million. Compared to 2022/23, the volume of goods and services produced by the economy is estimated to have fallen by 3.7%, a decrease in GDP in real terms (i.e. adjusting for price inflation) of around £1.5 million (Table 1).

Table 1. Estimates of Gross Domestic Product, 2019/20 to 2023/24, £ million

	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Current basic prices	37.2	39.0	37.9	39.5	39.2
Current market prices	38.4	40.4	39.5	39.8	39.4
Constant 23/24 market prices	41.8	43.4	41.8	40.9	39.4
Annual GDP growth rate	-4.8%	3.8%	-3.9%	-2.1%	-3.7%

Over the last five years, from 2019/20 to 2023/24, GDP has fallen in real terms by 5.7%. But the total number of people on St Helena who contribute to GDP – both residents and visitors – on St Helena has also fallen, from an estimated average of 4,563 in 2019/20 to 4,277 in 2023/24 – a similar drop of 6.3%.

Adjusted for the size of the population, GDP was estimated to be £9,210 per person in 2023/24, or $11,570 (Table 2). In real terms, when inflation is taken into account, GDP per capita decreased slightly by 2.2% when compared to 2022/23. But over the last five years, GDP per capita has remained at a similar level, increasing very slightly from £9,170 to £9,210 (0.4%) between 2019/20 and 2023/24.

Table 2. Estimates of Gross Domestic Product per capita, 2019/20 to 2023/24

	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
GDP per capita (£, current)	8,400	8,930	8,940	9,180	9,210
GDP per capita (£, constant 23/24 prices)	9,170	9,590	9,440	9,420	9,210
Annual GDP per capita growth rate	-2.1%	4.6%	-1.6%	-0.2%	-2.2%
Estimate of average on-island population	4,563	4,527	4,422	4,339	4,277
GDP per capita ($, current)	10,710	11,690	12,220	11,060	11,570

Breakdown of GDP by industrial activity

Table 3 shows the share of total value added by each major activity grouping (industrial activities are classified according to Revision 4 of the UN International Standard Industrial Classification, grouped to avoid disclosure of information about individual companies). Value added is the key component of GDP, and represents the total output of sole traders, businesses, government, and non-profit organisations, less the value of intermediate consumption (i.e. the value of goods and services used in the process of producing final goods or services). Note that there have been significant revisions to these estimates for previous years, as a result of better categorisation of value added to sectors, for Government activities and for some companies.

The largest sector in the economy in 2023/24 was Public Adminstration (18.1%), followed by Finance, Insurance, Information, and Communication (16.5%), and Health and Social Service Activities (15.5%). These three groups of activities account for just over a half of all value added in the economy (50.1%).

Table 3. Value Added by industrial activity, 2023/24

	Value added (£m)	Share (%)
A: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	0.82	2.1
B, C, D, E: Quarrying, Manufacturing, Electricity, Water, and Sanitation	3.15	8.0
F: Construction	2.13	5.4
G: Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles	4.58	11.7
H: Transportation and Storage	2.21	5.6
I: Accommodation and Food Service Activities	0.65	1.7
J, K: Finance, Insurance, Information, Communication	6.48	16.5
L: Real Estate Activities	1.94	5.0
M, N, R, S: Other Activities and Services	2.03	5.2
O: Public Administration	7.08	18.1
P: Education	2.06	5.3
Q: Health and Social Service Activities	6.07	15.5
Total	39.17	100.0
Note: Government activities (mostly Public Administration, Education, Health and Social Service activities) are valued net of depreciation. Percentage shares may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Gross National Income

A useful alternative measure to GDP is called Gross National Income (GNI), which values the economic activity of the Island’s residents, regardless of where that activity takes place. This is different to GDP, which is a measure of the total value of goods and services produced within the territorial boundaries of St Helena, regardless of whether that value is produced by its residents. GNI is derived from GDP by adding an estimate of the income earned abroad by residents and deducting an estimate of the income earned on St Helena by non-residents.

Table 4 shows the nominal levels of GNI and GNI per capita since 2019/20. St Helena’s estimated GNI per capita level is not yet high enough to have crossed the World Bank threshold that defines a ‘high income’ country. One important implication of this is that the financial support it receives from the United Kingdom and other official aid donors is classified as Official Development Assistance.

Table 4. Gross National Income, 2019/20 to 2023/24

	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Current market prices (£ million)	37.4	40.0	38.7	39.0	38.2
Per capita, current prices, £	8,210	8,850	8,760	8,980	8,930
Per capita, current prices, $	10,460	11,570	11,970	10,820	11,220
World Bank high income threshold $	12,535	12,695	13,205	13,845	14,005

Notes and Methodology

Revisions: GDP estimation and measurement methods are complex and development of St Helena’s National Accounts is an ongoing programme of work. All estimates published in this bulletin should be considered provisional and subject to future revision as additional data sources become available and further improvements are made to the methodology. This release includes several revisions, including improved methods for estimating the contribution of certain financial services, adjustments to the treatment of government subsidies to some state-owned enterprises, and the use of new data sources to estimate the different types of activities performed by government and by large enterprises. Revisions have been incorporated from 2017/18 onwards to ensure comparability over time. Table 5 provides a comparison of the revised estimates to those previously released, for total GDP at current market prices.

Table 5. Revisions to total GDP at current market prices, 2017/18 to 2022/23

	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23
Previous estimates, £ million	36.2	39.2	38.0	39.4	39.0	39.3
Revised estimates, £ million	37.1	39.6	38.4	40.4	39.5	39.8
Change (%)	2.7	1.2	0.9	2.8	1.2	1.3

Approach: There are three basic methods of compiling total GDP: the expenditure, income, and production (or output) approaches. Prior to 2016, St Helena published estimates based on the expenditure approach, and in 2016 a figure for 2014/15 was published based on the income approach. This Bulletin presents estimates based on the production approach. As far as practicable in a small economy with limited resources for compiling GDP statistics, the methods used aim to follow the international guidance published in the 2008 System of National Accounts by the United Nations.

GDP at basic prices: Estimates at basic prices are derived as the sum of the gross value added of companies and government consumption expenditure, plus the incomes of sole traders, and an estimate of the rental value derived by households from the owner-occupation of their homes. The valuation of the output of government has been made on a net basis, excluding an estimate of asset depreciation (this is common in other small countries). Taxes on production are small and have not generally been included, so the value of GDP at basic prices is roughly equivalent to factor cost.

GDP at market prices: To be consistent with the guidelines issued by the United Nations, GDP at market prices is derived by adding total indirect taxes on products and production (including customs duties and service taxes) to total GDP at basic prices, and subtracting regular government subsidies to companies (these subsidies are included in the sectoral breakdown of GDP at basic prices).

Inflation adjustment: Estimates are presented in both nominal and real terms, referred to in this release as current prices and constant 2023/24 prices. Estimates in nominal terms will change due to both the effect of price changes and because of growth in the size of the economy. But changes in the size of the economy can only be measured using estimates expressed in real terms, adjusted for price inflation (i.e., using constant prices). Estimates in real terms have been calculated by applying the recommended method of using specific inflation estimates for each industrial grouping of economic activity, an improvement on past practice of using St Helena’s Retail Price Index.

Measurement issues: There are significant measurement difficulties in obtaining accurate source data for estimating GDP and related indicators for St Helena. Additionally the recommended measurement frameworks and concepts are not always well suited to measuring economic activity in small, aid-dependent economies. Estimates are very sensitive to timing issues and to recording or classification conventions, which while appropriate for larger economies may distort trends and levels in smaller countries. There are further measurement difficulties in calculating GNI; in particular, there are very limited data sources to estimate the income earned abroad by resident individuals and companies and the income earned on St Helena by non-resident individuals and companies.

Per capita estimates: For calculating per capita estimates of both GDP and GNI, the population total used is the average of the end of month on-Island population estimates for the period, as published on the St Helena Government website by the Statistics Office.

Currency conversion: For converting from St Helena Pounds (£) to United States Dollars ($) the average monthly spot rates published by the Bank of England have been used for each financial year.

Data sources: The primary sources that have been used to compile GDP and related measures include Income Tax returns, published company accounts, and population estimates published by the Statistics Office. Thanks are extended to all the companies and businesses that have responded to past Business Surveys, to the Income Tax Office for their cooperation and help in using the data from tax returns for this purpose, and to the Immigration Office for their help in using data on arrivals and departures to estimate the size of the population. Data confidentiality is maintained in accordance with the requirements of the 2000 Statistics Ordinance.

Technical advice and support: Compiling estimates of Gross Domestic Product and related National Accounts is a highly specialised task that has only been possible because of the technical advice and support provided by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Methodology Advisory Service in the United Kingdom – thanks are especially due to Jim O’Donoghue and Robin Youll.

Have more questions or comments?

Please get in touch: we are Neil Fantom, Chief Statistician, Kelly Clingham and Justine Joshua, Senior Statistical Assistants, and Courtney O’Dean, Statistics Assistant. You can find us in person at the Statistics Office on the top floor of the Post Office Building, Jamestown. You can also contact us by telephone on 22138; if calling from overseas, the international dialling code for St Helena is 290. Our general office e-mail address is statistics@sainthelena.gov.sh, or you can email team members directly (the format is firstname.lastname@sainthelena.gov.sh).