Measuring Quality of Life in Denmark – A New Project Preben Etwil & Inez Lindemann Kristensen 10th Conference “Social Monitoring and Reporting in Europe” 2015

Focus Measure Quality of Life in Denmark Comparing Danish municipalities Both objective and subjective indicators Analysis Dessimination

The Danish project Initiated in 2014 Funded by TrygFonden, Region of Southern Denmark and Statistics Denmark The project consists of three employees The work is conducted by Statistics Denmark and drawing on all the institution's register data and collected subjective data from DST-Survey The project will be completed at the end of 2016, if there are no external funding

Recommendations? Statistics Denmark has tried to follow the most recognized international recommendations Specifically, we looked at report from Stiglitz, Sen and Fitosussi, but also other recommendations from OECD and EU The international recommendations have focused on country comparisons. In Denmark, the focus has been to compare municipalities

Objective quality of life (register data) The indicators cover all 5 regions and 98 municipalities in Denmark Most of the indicators are associated with a personal identification number (CPR) Can be compared with the subjective indicators Projektet råder over alle registerdata i DST til de objektive indikatorer Ikke penge til survey i alle 98 kommuner Survey på web og telefon Pilottest i september Dataindsamling oktober-februar

Objective quality of life (register data) Quality of life depends on objective conditions and capabilities in multiple dimensions Health Safety Employment Education Life expectancy Hospital admissions per 1000 inhabitants Burglaries in a residential per 1000 inhabitants Violence per 1000 inhabitants Employment rate, 30-59 year olds Proportion long-term unemployed 30-59 year olds Proportion with qualifying education 30-59 year olds Social mobility in education Economy Social interactions Housing Governance and basic rights Disposable incomes Risk of poverty Divorces per 1000 married Living area per person Participation in parliamentary election Participation in municipal elections

Subjective quality of life (survey data) Only selected in 38 municipalities (of 98) Full cover of Region Southern Denmark (funded by region) In the other four regions: Largest population High income municipalities Outlying Municipality And closest to the region's age structure 1,000 respondents per municipality 2,000 responses covering the whole country Projektet råder over alle registerdata i DST til de objektive indikatorer Ikke penge til survey i alle 98 kommuner Survey på web og telefon Pilottest i september Dataindsamling oktober-februar

Subjective Quality of Life I OECD definition of Subjective well-being include: Life evaluation: a reflective assessment on a person’s life or some specific aspect of it Eudaimonia: a sense of meaning and purpose in life Affect: a person's feelings and emotional state, typically measured with reference to a specific point in time

Subjektive QoL II (survey) Overall, how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days? [0-10] Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? The following questions ask about how you felt yesterday: How about happy? How about worried? How about depressed? OECD’s Guidelines on measuring subjective well-being anbefaler nationale statistikbureauer som minimum at stille disse fem spørgsmål

Subjective QoL III (survey) In addition, we ask questions about: Domain specific evaluation, e.g. satisfaction with the economic situation, social interactions and employment Self-reported health, stress, exercise, solitude, volunteering, financial flexibility, experienced safety, confidence in politicians etc.

The Danish CPR-system The Central Personal Register was introduced 1968 It assigns a unique ID too anyone living in Denmark CPR-numbers: DDMMYY-XXXX The CPR-system is used by all parts the public sector in Denmark, when relating with the public.

The Central Personal Register (CPR) Name Age Sex Marital status Citizenship Place of birth Address Resp. municipality Family (CPR of mother, father, spouse) Protection of address Member of public church from CPR-number

Several set of data but only one key Survey data Perception of economy Perception of education Perception of employment Perception of safety Subjective indicators Perception of health CPR Register data Economy Education Employment Safety Objective indicators Health

Subjective indicators One observation Subjective indicators Survey data ● Objective indicators Register data Combination of objective and subjective indicators ∑CPR Self-reported health Income x

Subjective indicators Survey data ● Objective indicators Register data From a single observation to statistics ∑CPR Income x Self-reported health y=ax+b x

Unlimited analysis possibilities I Municipality Z Objective indicator X Subjective indicator X

Unlimited analysis possibilities II Municipality Z Subjective indicator Y Subjective indicator X

Unlimited analysis possibilities III Municipality Z Objective indicator Y Objective indicator X

Unlimited analysis possibilities IV Municipality Z Objective indicator Y Time from 2008 and forward

Dessimination of indicators? Long-term unemployed

Thank you for your attention any questions?