Abstract

Title: Well-being as a guideline: the role of statistical institutes in measuring inclusive, equitable and sustainable well-being.

Alesandra Tinto (ISTAT), Vasiliki Sogia (ONS), Dries Verlet (Statistics Flanders) & Marc Callens (Ghent University)

In the search for "the" quality of life, the dominant position of GDP as a measure of social progress has been under attack for several decades. In addition tointrinsic constraints of an economic nature, the basic criticism is that neither the social nor the ecological dimension is well reflected in GDP. This position corresponds to the pursuit of a broader view of the concept of prosperity. At the international level, we see various initiatives, such as those developed within the European Commission (Eurostat), the OECD and the UN.

This interpretation cannot be seen separately from the way in which the quality of life is mapped. Traditionally, there is the approach in which economic indicators are paramount. The field of view was broadened to include other social indicators. A third approach emphasizes the use of subjective indicators in order to map the perceived quality of life (or so-called subjective well-being). Furthermore, the debate about the use of so-called objective and subjective indicators remains ongoing.

Central to the discussions about the quality of life is the question of whether we measure the right things to measure it. Economic wealth does not guarantee happiness. We are therefore seeing more initiatives to measure this subjective well-being. In a number of cases, it is also explicitly put forward as a political objective. In a sense, this normative interpretation is inevitable: we cannot measure quality of life without making certain assumptions about what constitutes a “good life”..

Statistical institutions play an important role in providing reliable, high-quality information. In addition to various other actors, they help create and maintain an ecosystem of trustworthy information about quality of life – whether perceived or not.

With this contributed paper session we aim to bring together experiences in measuring the quality of life from statistical institutions and other societal actors. The goal of the session is to address how National Statistical Institutes and other official data producers are addressing the measurement of well-being, considering aspects related to equity and sustainability, so that they can respond to recent international challenges (for example, the recent work of the High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP and of the UN Expert Group on Measuring Well-being).