In order to understand whether a country has fulfilled its main goal and increased the well-being of its people, it is necessary to measure the well-being of people. How to do it? In order to measure the effectiveness of social welfare systems in increasing the well-being of citizens, various indicators have been developed. The most known indicator is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Unfortunately, this is not a good indicator for measuring the well-being of society. In order to get an overview of what is happening in society, social and environmental developments must be taken into account in addition to GDP, as intangible well-being is an important criterion for achieving people’s general well-being and happiness. For example, an Ecological Footprint can be used to measure environmental developments, taking into account the impact of consumption and production patterns on the environment. More information on this indicator is available at www.footprintnetwork.org.
Measuring human well-being and the performance of government social welfare activities is a key priority for the OECD. The latest OECD study, “How’s Life? 2020” provides comparable statistics on how the lives of people living in the OECD and selected partner countries have changed. This welfare framework currently contains 11 related dimensions28:
- Material conditions that shape people’s economic options (Income and Wealth, Housing, Work and Job Quality);
- Quality-of-life factors that encompass how well people are (and how well they feel they are), what they know and can do, and how healthy and safe their places of living are (Health, Knowledge and Skills, Environmental Quality, Subjective Well-being, Safety);
- How connected and engaged people are, and how and with whom they spend their time (Work-Life Balance, Social Connections, Civic Engagement).
The latest survey, conducted in 2018, shows that life has improved compared to 2010. People are living longer, safer, the OECD average homicide rate has fallen by a quarter, and people feel safer walking around. Employment rates and incomes have risen and people were more satisfied with their lives than in 2013. There has been a decline in well-being in the field of social interaction and also financial insecurity has increased. 7% of people say that life satisfaction is very low and a significant minority (13%) experience more negative than positive feelings on a normal day. More information from OECD homepage http://www.oecd.org/statistics/how-s-life-23089679.htm
The list of indicators for measuring the well-being and social welfare mentioned above is not exhaustive. A wide variety of well-being measurement methodologies can be found on the Internet.
28 OECD Better Policies for Better Life. How’s Life? 2020 (14.08.2020)
