A scoreboard of Quality of Life and well-being indicators within the European Statistical System. Miguel Guigó Eurostat F4 "Quality of Life"

Transcription

1 A scoreboard of Quality of Life and well-being indicators within the European Statistical System Miguel Guigó Eurostat F4 "Quality of Life"

2 Quality of Life (QoL) Indicators Eurostat and the European Statistical Sytem (ESS) have developed a set of indicators of Quality of Life (QoL) to be disseminated in the form of a scoreboard. QoL indicators will complement the figures provided by GDP as a measure of economic performance- with additional information for monitoring social and environmental progress. Multidimensional - The concept of QoL is widely accepted as consisting of different dimensions which are independent but equally interrelated to some extent.

3 Eurostat s dedicated section Eurostat has introduced in its official website a new dedicated section on QoL, which includes the scoreboard with a subset of non-controversial indicators, on the basis of the structure of the theoretical framework of 8+1 dimensions:

4 Eurostat s dedicated section dimensions Every single dimension has its own The Hague, subset 12 of Sep 2013 indicators

5 8+1 Dimensions of Quality of Life 1. Material living conditions 2. Productive and valued activities (including work) 3. Health 4. Education 5. Leisure and social interactions 6. Economic and physical safety 7. Governance and basic rights 8. Natural and living environment 8+1. Overall experience of life

6 Where did it come from? (Inputs) A Sponsorship Group on Measuring Progress, Well-Being and sustainable development with a specific task force measuring Quality of Life on a multidimensional basis Internal work carried out by Eurostat including a feasibility study to measuring and monitoring human well-being within the EU, and a study on the analysis, implementation (and dissemination) of Wellbeing indicators.

7 A Group of Experts on QoL The idea has been bringing together not only producers, but also users and other stakeholders. Members of national statistical authorities Eurostat staff Experts from Academia and other private organizations Representatives from European institutions International organizations (OECD)

8 Work process The process is underpinned by a theoretical framework with theoretical consisting of the 8+1 dimensions for the measurement of well-being at the EU level To develop a comprehensive list of related topics and sub-topics and then a concrete set of variables and indicators to be produced and disseminated on the basis of existing data

9 European statistics are official statistics produced by the ESS and they follow specific standards and meet certain quality requirements. Sources of the data The information must be provided at the European level and hence based on European statistics: The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) is the core instrument for measuring QoL. Other ESS sources complement the whole picture: Labour Force Survey (LFS), Adult Education Survey (AES), European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), Time Use Survey (TUS), Household Budgetary Survey (HBS).

10 Filling the gaps Whenever data is not available (EU-SILC, other surveys or administrative data): Non-ESS sources (e.g., European Quality of Life Survey, EQLS) act temporarily as placeholders. ESS sources will be enhanced in the future to collect information on the matter, either on a regular basis or via ad hoc modules

11 Results Successful methodology, literature or practical experiences have been provided and discussed on the variables to be selected or the procedure for building indicators. A list of variables and indicators have been identified as appropriate for the scoreboard, and each indicator considered as either a) available b) available in the future c) to be developed or defined, or d) to be implemented in a survey.

12 From the theoretical framework to the data Dimension Topic Topic Subtopic Subtopic Subtopic... Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator Variable & Indicator

13 Example: Dimension 6. Economic and physical safety Topic / subtopic Economic security Wealth (assets) and vulnerability Variable/Indicator N/A (to be developed) Debt Over indebtedness (to be developed; SILC 2008) Physical and personal security Income insecurity (including job) Crime Perception of physical safety Inability to face unexpected financial expenses Likelihood of losing the job (to be developed) Death due to homicide, assault, by sex Crime, violence or vandalism in the area Percentage of people reporting to feel safe/unsafe when walking alone in their area after dark (SILC 2013)

14 The scoreboard Partly because of the inherent difficulties when measuring the variety of concepts included, partly because of the lack of currently available data regarding some of the concepts (either not c o llected or planned to be collected only in the short and midterm), Eurostat has firstly disseminated a subset of non-controversial indicators which will be progressively enhanced in order to achieve a comprehensive set.

15 1. Material living conditions

16 cc 2. Productive and valued activities

17 3. Health

18 4. Education

19 5. Leisure and social interactions

20 6. Economic and physical safety

21 7. Governance and basic rights

22 8. Natural and living environment

23 8+1. Overall experience of life

24 Some challenges Information on some topics not yet available or unable to be provided on a yearly basis. The scoreboard will be progressively improved when more data with a larger coverage of dimensions becomes available (ad hoc modules in SILC* and LFS** Selecting the type of measure (indicator): not only central tendency measures or thresholds, but inform on the whole distribution. The choice of breakdowns to identify vulnerable subpopulations. *2013; ** 2015

25 For more information Contact Miguel Guigó European Commission - DG ESTAT Unit F4 "Qality of Life" tel. (+352) fax (+352) Miguel.GUIGO@ec.europa.eu