In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the fact that macro-economic statistics did not portray the right image of what ordinary people perceived about the state of their own lives. Addressing these concerns is crucial, not just for the credibility and accountability of public policies, but for the very functioning of our democracies. The OECD has been leading the international reflection on this challenge through various projects and initiatives.
The publication of a set of well-being indicators for developed and selected emerging economies is an important new contribution to this debate.
In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the fact that macro-economic statistics did not portray the right image of what ordinary people perceived about the state of their own lives. Addressing these concerns is crucial, not just for the credibility and accountability of public policies, but for the very functioning of our democracies.
The OECD has been leading the international reflection on this challenge through various projects1 and initiatives. In 2004, it held its first World Forum on „Statistics, Knowledge and Policies‟ in Palermo. Two more Forums took place in Istanbul in 2007, which led to the launch of the OECD-hosted Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies, and in Busan in 2009. Thanks to these and other efforts undertaken in the international community, measuring well-being and progress is now at the forefront of national and international statistical and political agendas (Box 1). This agenda is not relevant for developed countries only as improving people‟s well-being is a goal for every government in the world.
1 OECD, 2001; Boarini et al., 2006.
The OECD is preparing an important new contribution to this debate, with the publication of a set of well-being indicators for developed and selected emerging economies.