Quality of Life Indicators Getting the Message Out Challenges and Opportunities January 24-25, 2013 ESAC Workshop Measuring and Comparing the Quality of Life Within Europe Brussels Marco Babic, Bloomberg News

State of Play Information comes to us from more sources than ever before. It’s important to have a compelling reason for people to take the time to read and absorb what you are trying to convey. Bloomberg News has been interested in “beyond GDP” measures and measuring not only economic but social progress. There are many reports and indicators produced aimed at capturing social progress and prosperity. To my knowledge none are produced with quarterly or monthly frequency. This is a very good opportunity for a new QoL index.

The Narrative What is it that you are trying to tell or express? How is your indicator different (or better) that others? Tell me why I need to care about this. What is at stake? Who is my audience?

Getting the Word Out Clear release methodology Embargoed release with agreed upon publishing date and time Fixed release time and date Timeliness Transparency Access to Experts on the data View the media as your partner Provide perspective and historical context to the data. If you make it easier for media to understand, the transmission to the audience is clearer

Challenges Differentiation. Defining the audience. Timeliness Gaining acceptance

Opportunities Making QoL a monthly or quarterly indicator will in my view help it gain wider acceptance, particularly if the variables included in Annex 2 of the outline are included Income and economic inequality. This is something that seems to be gaining more attention in politics Making available at the city level Consider creating an index for countries outside Europe

ESAC QoL – Specific Media Launch Ideas High profile launch. Perhaps in conjunction with a major statistics conference High profile policy maker to present initial report Mainstream and Social media

Conclusions and Observations On the right track. Having a high frequency (near-time) indicator is invaluable. Monthly would be best. If this is to be used by government to formulate policy, have a high ranking and high profile policy maker available at the launch of this. This would be of high interest to the media. Create QoL index for major European cities. Create QoL index for countries outside Europe for global comparison.

Thank you very much.