This document summarizes the OECD's work on measuring well-being and quality of life beyond just economic measures like GDP. It discusses the OECD's Better Life Initiative, which focuses on outcomes for people in areas like health, education, work-life balance, and the environment. The initiative assesses inequalities, uses both objective and subjective measures, and engages the public through an interactive web tool. Key findings include differences in country performance across dimensions; increases in income inequality in many countries; and lower well-being for disadvantaged groups in areas like health, social connections, and work-life balance. The OECD is committed to further developing well-being measures and promoting their policy use.
2. The OECD Better Life Initiative
Building on almost 10
years of OECD work
under the Global Project How’s Life?
(report)
OECD
Now moving to measuring
what matters most in
Better Life
PEOPLE’s life Initiative
Your Better
Life Index
(interactive
web tool)
OECD@50: Better policies for better lives
3. Focus
• Households and people, not just GDP
• Outcomes, not inputs or outputs
• Assessing inequalities alongside averages
• Including both objective and subjective aspects of
well-being
4. Scope
Well-being here and now
– Quality of Life
– Material Living Conditions
Well-being in the future
– Sustainability
6. Measurement approach
Relevance of indicators
- face-validity
- easily understood, unambiguous interpretation
- amenable to policy changes
- possibility of disaggregation by population groups
Quality of supporting data
- official and well-established sources; non-official data used as place-holders
in a few cases
- comparable/standardized definitions
- maximum country-coverage
- recurrent data collection
Significant documentation and testing
No Composite Index
7. An evolutionary process
• Now:
– Evidence based on existing data; all indicators reviewed by
National Statistical Offices
– But not all indicators satisfy all quality criteria equally well
How’s Life? identifies the statistical agenda ahead
• In future:
– New and improved indicators as results from OECD work,
research and other initiatives become available
– More than just environmental sustainability
(economic, human and social)
9. No country performs best in all dimensions
Average country performance by dimension
Number of green lights out of 22 headline indicators
60%
Number of red lights out of 22 headline indicators
Source : OECD calculations
10. Strengths and weaknesses differ among
countries
United States
Income and
wealth France
10
Subjective well-
Jobs and earnings
being 8
6
Personal security 4 Housing
2
0
Environmental Work and life
quality balance
Civic engagement
Health status
and governance
Education and
Social connections
skills
Source : OECD calculations
11. Inequalities in well-being : income
Large income inequalities in many OECD countries…
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
Gini coefficient, 2008 or latest year available
Source : OECD Income distribution and poverty database
12. Inequalities in well-being: income
… which have increased in many of them
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
-0.03
-0.04
Point changes in Gini coefficient, from mid-1980s to late-2000s
Source : OECD Income distribution and poverty database
13. Inequalities in well-being: health
Low-income people report lower health status
100
Highest income quintile
90
Lowest income quintile
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Source : OECD Health Data; EU-SILC
14. Inequalities in well-being: social
connections
Lower-educated and lower-income people also have…
… weaker social ties… … and lower trust in others
95
40
35
90
30
85
25
80 20
15
75
10
70
5
65 0
Primary Secondary Tertiary 1 2 3 4 5 Primary Secondary Tertiary 1 2 3 4 5
Axis Title
Axis Title Education Income quintile
Incomequintile
Education
Percentage of people reporting that they have someone Percentage of people reporting trusting others, 2010
to count on in times of need, 2010
Source : Gallup World Poll
15. Inequalities in well-being: jobs
Long-term unemployment much higher among youth
25-54 15-24
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Long-term unemployment rate, 2010
Source : OECD Labour force statistics database
16. Inequalities in well-being:
work-life balance
Satisfaction with work-life balance is lower for working women and
goes down with the number of children
Male Female
30 28.5
27.3
24.8 24.7
25 23.4 23.3
21
20.2
20
15
10
5
0
No child 1 child 2 children 3 or more children
Percentage of workers satisfied with their work-life balance in Europe, 2007
Source : Second European Quality of Life Survey
17. Other people matter for one’s subjective
well-being
Life satisfaction goes up with social ties
8
With friends to count on
Without friends to count on
7
Average Life Satisfaction
6
5
4
3
2
Source : Gallup World Poll
18. Environmental sustainability
Demand-based CO2 emissions grew faster than production-
based emissions in the OECD area
Production Demand
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
OECD Other major economies
Production-based and demand-based CO2 emissions,
Rate of change per year, 1995-2005
Source : OECD, Towards Green Growth: Monitoring Progress – OECD Indicators
19. Involving the public
• Engaging with civil society has been one of the
goals of the OECD-hosted Global Project
• How’s Life? is accompanied by interactive web
tool (Your Better Life Index) aimed at
involving the public
21. What matters most to people ?
11.00%
10.50%
Female
37%
10.00% Male
63%
9.50%
9.00% All
Male
Female
8.50%
8.00%
7.50%
Source : OECD calculations
22. Age makes a difference
Health, Governance and Environment become While income, jobs and work-life balance
more important with age become less important
11.0% 11.0%
Users weights
Housing Housing
Users weights
Income Income
10.5% 10.5%
Jobs Jobs
10.0% Community 10.0% Community
Education Education
9.5% 9.5%
Environment Environment
Governance Governance
9.0% 9.0%
Health Health
8.5% 8.5%
Life satisfaction Life satisfaction
Safety Safety
8.0% 8.0%
Work and Life Work and Life
balance balance
7.5% 7.5%
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 >65 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 >65
Source : OECD calculations
23. What’s next (1)
OECD committed to deliver on How’s Life?
measurement agenda
Developing guidelines on subjective well-being
Integrating inequalities in National Accounts
Developing standards for measuring household wealth and joint
distribution of income, consumption and wealth
Measures of household non-market production
Green Growth Indicators; Human and social capital
In collaboration with National Statistical Offices and
other international organisations
24. What’s next (2)
• Extending the well-being agenda to developing
countries as part of the new OECD Development
Strategy
• Promoting effective use of new measures for
policy-making
• Continued engagement with civil society 4th
OECD World Forum in India in October 2012
