Transcript slides from the presentation are available here.

Measuring National Well-being:
...the story so far....
Glenn Everett
Measuring National Well-being Programme Director
Royal Statistical Society 7 April 2014
Background
• Traditional measures of progress such as GDP are
increasingly considered an incomplete picture of the state of
the nation.
• Additional economic, social and environmental measures are
needed alongside GDP to provide a complete picture of how
society is doing.
• UK’s Measuring National Well-being (MNW) Programme was
launched by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the
National Statistician in November 2010.
UK Prime Minister asks...
“You’ve got to take
practical steps to make
sure government is
properly focused on our
quality of life as well as
economic growth”
“this information will help
government work out,
with evidence, the best
ways of helping to
improve people’s wellbeing.”
David Cameron,
November 2010
“Statistics are the bedrock
of democracy, in a country
where we care about what
is happening. We must
measure what matters the key elements of
national well-being. We
want to develop measures
based on what people tell
us matters most.”
Jil Matheson,
November 2010
Not that new a concept...
“The Gross National Product counts
air pollution and cigarette
advertising, and ambulances to
clear our highways of carnage... It
counts napalm and the cost of a
nuclear warhead, and armored
cars for police who fight riots in
our streets... (It) does not allow for
the health of our children, the
quality of their education, or the
joy of their play...
it measures everything except that
which makes life worthwhile.”
Robert Kennedy,
18 March 1968
National Debate
• MNW Programme started with a
national debate on ‘what matters to
you?’
• Aim: To gain basis and public support
for methods of measuring national wellbeing.
• Employed both conventional and
innovative methods of communicating.
• Debate has helped the ONS identify the
key areas that matter most
• Help to ensure that the measures we
use will be relevant, not only to
government, but also to the wider
public.
Need for a framework...
UK’s Approach
• Using many existing sources (around 21) to
populate the Domains.
• Added 4 questions on personal well-being to
household surveys, covering:
•
•
•
•
Life satisfaction;
Worthwhile life;
Happy &
Anxious yesterday.
• Findings analysed alongside other information
to help understand impact on well-being
What are we trying to achieve?
An accepted and trusted set of National Statistics to help
people understand and monitor national well-being.
The ‘triple bottom line’
Economy
Social
Environment
Quiz
What percentage of respondents rated their life
satisfaction as high/medium (ie 7 to 10 on 0-10
scale) in 2012/13?
a) 66%
b) 69%
c) 77%
d) 82%
Quiz
What percentage of respondents rated their life
satisfaction as high/medium (ie 7 to 10 on 0-10
scale) in 2012/13?
a) 66%
b) 69%
c) 77%
d) 82%
Quiz
What percentage of total energy consumption was
from renewable sources in 2011?
a) 4.1%
b) 23.2%
c) 33%
d) 45.4%
Quiz
What percentage of total energy consumption was
from renewable sources in 2011?
a) 4.1%
b) 23.2%
c) 33%
d) 45.4%
Quiz
What was the value of informal childcare as a
percentage of GDP IN 2010?
a) 2%
b) 6.6%
c) 9.1%
d) 23%
Quiz
What was the value of informal childcare as a
percentage of GDP IN 2010?
a) 2%
b) 6.6%
c) 9.1%
d) 23%
Quiz
What was the value of Human Capital in 2012?
a) £817b
b) £8.2t
c) £17.9t
d) £81.7t
Quiz
What was the value of Human Capital in 2012?
a) £817b
b) £8.2t
c) £17.9t
d) £81.7t
ONS’ Four Subjective Well-being
Questions
1. Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
(Evaluative)
2. Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in
your life are worthwhile? (Eudemonic)
3. Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
(Experience or affect - positive)
4. Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
(Experience or affect - negative)
All answered using a 0 to 10 scale where 0 is ‘not at all’
and 10 is ‘completely’
Overall change between 2011/12 &
2012/13
What is important to Subjective Well-being?
Latest findings from regression analysis of subjective well-being
found:
• Self-reported health, employment status and relationship
status most important aspects of subjective well-being.
• Higher earnings don’t necessarily lead to higher feelings of
happiness but do increase people’s life satisfaction.
• People in higher occupations or higher qualifications more
anxious than lower occupations or qualifications.
• Choice important – people working in a job that they are
content with have higher life satisfaction than those wanting
an additional or different job.
Economy
•
•
•
•
Household perspective – income and expenditure
Human Capital estimates
Economic well-being
Household satellite accounts:
 Childcare
 Adult care
 Volunteering
 Transport
 Housing
 Laundry
 Cooking
Environment
•
•
•
•
•
Environmental accounts
Environment goods & services
Environmental protection expenditure
Natural Capital estimates (top-down)
Natural capital estimates (detail):
 Cross-cutting (land use; carbon; water; soil)
 Habitats (Woodlands; Wetlands; Grasslands;
Mountains moorlands & Heath; Enclosed farmland;
Marine; & Coastal margins)
Policy Appraisal
• It is important these new measures are
not just published but become part of
public debate and are used to improve the
development, implementation and
evaluation of policies
• In July 2011 the Treasury and Dept for
Work & Pensions updated the Green Book
to include an approach that uses subjective
well-being measurement, to improve social
cost-benefit analysis.
• Social cost-benefit analysis seeks to
express the full social costs and full social
benefits of policies in monetary terms.
• Such estimates can inform options,
analysis and business cases.
How is well-being data used?
• Dept of Health’s alcohol strategy against a consideration of national
well-being.
• Civil Service People survey - insights into staff well-being help steer
HR policies.
• Dept of Work & Pensions is assessing impact on the well-being of the
very-long-term unemployed.
• Cabinet Office is evaluating the impact of National Citizen Service on
the well-being of participants.
• Berkeley Homes is using well-being as part of their evaluation of
planning proposals.
Well-being: International Developments
• Eurostat and the OECD are developing measures of well-being.
• Key international developments include:
Report of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and
Social Progress (CMEPSP) in 2009
In 2011 of the OECD’s Better Life Initiative website, an online interactive instrument
that allows users to measure well-being across countries
How’s Life report which provides more in-depth analysis
Adoption of the recommendations of the INSEE/Eurostat Sponsorship Group on
‘Measuring Progress, Well-being and Sustainable Development’ by the European
Statistics System Committee (ESSC) in November 2011.
• Other countries undertaking similar research include;
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Measures of Australia's progress
Institute of well-being: The Canadian index of well-being
The State of the USA website
What’s next...
• Encourage use of well-being data in policy.
• Review and refine domains and measures of well-being, including
assessment of change
• Further research drivers of well-being.
• Review framework for presenting well-being data to cover sustainability,
equity and sub-national information.
• Further development of the SWB questions and other indicators (eg
human, social & natural capitals, non-market production, etc).
• Continued input on International developments (UN, OECD, EU).
• The programme will continue to consult widely.
Key messages
• Long-term development project – still learning –
experimental outputs
• NOT a ‘happiness index’
• Consider importance of distributions not just averages
• Not a single measure – need both objective and
subjective data
• Supplements – not supplants GDP
• Use for better targeting of scarce resources
• Use for ‘Better policies for better lives’ (OECD)
See more: www.ons.gov.uk/well-being
Measuring National Well-being
To be continued......
Measuring National Well-being
QUESTIONS?..
..COMMENTS..
Better statistics
..DISCUSSION
Better decisions
www.ons.gov.uk/well-being
[email protected]
Discuss National Well-being http://www.statsusernet.org.uk
Better lives