Forum: How is Life; Measuring Well-being. International Day of Happiness 2022.
Some of the priorities for future work related to Reach Human life Satisfaction are:
- The development of an integrated framework for measuring household income, consumption expenditures and wealth at the micro-level.
- The introduction of disparities between households with different characteristics into the national accounts framework.
- Better measures of the quality of employment, in particular measures of work safety and ethics, of workplace relationship and work motivation, as well as better measures of earnings inequality.
- Better measures of the quality of housing services beyond the availability of basic amenities, of housing costs and affordability.
- Better measures of morbidity, as well as of mental health and disability in particular, along with better measures of risk factors and drivers of different health outcomes.
- Better measures of non-cognitive skills, such as social and personality skills, as well as measures of the cognitive development of young children and of the adult population.
- More harmonised and recurrent measures of time use, as well as of time crunches and time stress.
- Better measures of social connections, social network support, interpersonal trust and other dimensions of social capital.
- Better methodologies and concepts for civic engagement indicators, in particular regarding how people perceive the quality of democratic institutions of the country where they live, so as to complement expert’s assessments of specific practices within the public sector.
Defining well-being is challenging because it requires looking at many aspects of
people’s lives, as well as understanding their relative importance. Although there is no
single definition of well-being, most experts and ordinary people around the world would
agree that it requires meeting various human needs, some of which are essential (e.g. being
in good health), as well as the ability to pursue one’s goals, to thrive and feel satisfied with
their life.
Since well-being is a complex phenomenon and many of its determinants are strongly
correlated with each other, assessing well-being requires a comprehensive framework
that includes a large number of components and that, ideally, allows gauging how their
interrelations shape people’s lives.
The framework underpinning How’s Life? identifies three pillars for understanding
and measuring people’s well-being: i) material living conditions; ii) quality of life; iii) and
sustainability
In terms of its scope, the approach shown in the Figure distinguishes between wellbeing today and well-being tomorrow. It identifies, for the former, a number of dimensions pertaining to either material living conditions or quality of life that are critical to people’s lives; and, for the latter, a number of conditions that have to be met to preserve the wellbeing of future generations.
In terms of its focus, the approach:
- Puts the emphasis on households and individuals, rather than on aggregate conditions
for the economy since, as discussed above, there may be a discrepancy between the economy-wide economic situation and the well-being of households. Generally speaking, the report assesses the well-being of the whole population, though in some cases the focus is put on groups of the population who are more likely to face specific well-being trade-offs (e.g. work and life balance).
- Concentrates on well-being outcomes, as opposed to well-being drivers measured by input or output indicators. Outcomes may be imperfectly correlated with inputs (e.g. health expenditure may be a poor predictor of health status if the health care system is inefficient) or outputs (e.g. the number of surgical interventions performed may say little about people’s health conditions).
- Looks at the distribution of well-being across individuals. This is especially important when there are disparities in achievements across population groups and when these are correlated across dimensions (e.g. when the likelihood of earning a low income is correlated with low educational achievement, poor health status, poor housing, etc.). In particular, How’s Life? looks at disparities across age groups, gender, income or socio-economic background.
- Considers both objective and subjective aspects of well-being. Objective components of
well-being are essential to assess people’s living conditions and quality of life, but
information on people’s evaluations and feelings about their own lives is also important
for capturing the psychological aspects of people’s “beings and doings” (e.g. feelings
of insecurity) and understanding the relationship between objective and subjective
components of well-being.
- Under material living conditions: i) Income and wealth; ii) Jobs and earnings; and iii) Housing.
Income and wealth capture people’s current and future consumption possibilities.
Both the availability of jobs and their quality are relevant for material well-being, not
only because they increase command over resources but also because having a job
provides the opportunity to fulfil one’s own ambitions and build self-esteem. Finally,
housing and its quality are essential not only to meet basic needs but also to have a
sense of personal security, privacy and personal space.
- Under quality of life: i) Health status; ii) Work and life balance; iii) Education and skills; iv)
Civic engagement and governance; v) Social connections; vi) Environmental quality; vii) Personal
security; and viii) Subjective well-being. Being healthy is important in itself but also for
performing a range of activities relevant to well-being, including work. Similarly,
SUSTAINABILITY OF WELL-BEING OVER TIME
Requires preserving different types of capital :
Natural capital
Economic capital
Human capital
Social capital
INDIVIDUAL WELL-BEING
Population averages and differences across groups
Regrettables
Quality of Life Material Living Conditions
GDP
Health status
Work and life balance
Education and skills
Social connections
Civic engagement and
governance
Environmental quality
Personal security
Subjective well-being
Income and wealth
Jobs and earnings
Housing. everyone aspires to becoming educated, but it is also a great asset for raising the
living standards of individuals and society as a whole. Being able to reconcile work
and life is important for the well-being of those who value having both a job and a
family while, more generally, being able to spend time on non-remunerated activities
helps individuals to remain healthy and productive.
- Civic engagement and quality of
governance matter for well-being, as they allow people to have more control of their
lives. Social connectedness is a basic human need that also helps fulfil many other
important goals (e.g. finding a job). The quality of the environment where people live
affects their health and their ability to do a number of essential activities. Likewise, an
environment where people can feel secure is important to a good life. Finally, considering
how people feel in terms of their own evaluations and emotions is important for seeing
whether they are satisfied with their lives as a whole, and whether this is the result
of objective living circumstances or other factors.
EVENTS
