Quality of life : report to the DSS

The sponsorship about the SSF report Four Task Forces GDP and inequalities Environnemental conditions Quality of life 4th Task Force Composition of the 3rd TF Eurostat, Insee Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Spain, Slovakia, UK, OECD, UN-ECE

Mandate of the TF provide indicators of quality of life as recommended in the SSF report propose indicators that can be computed for sub-populations, such as EU2020 vulnerable populations take into account both objective and subjective dimensions of QoL discuss about the opportunity to propose (or not) indicators using income, consumption or wealth variables consistency with the mandate of TF1 consistency with the computation for sub-populations

The SSF report Considers that QoL is multidimensional Claims that objective and subjective dimensions of welfare are both essential Recommends that : For every dimension of the quality of life inequalities can be measured Links between the different dimensions can be estimated with specific surveys The mandate of the TF is to propose indicators of Quality of life in line with the report’s recommendations

Principles of computation Consider that both objective and subjective dimensions are in the scope of the report Propose and discuss the computation of a synthetic indicator for every dimension of QoL using items, scores and thresholds for qualitative variables (the most common situation) Recommend the production of “radar” figures for viewing dimensions Discuss about the proposition of headline indicators, rather than composite indicators

The main objective dimensions of QoL in the report Living conditions health education personal activities (paid work, unpaid domestic work, commuting, leisure, housing), political voice and governance, social connections, environnemental conditions, personal insecurity, economic insecurity

An example of what could be done

Interactions between dimensions computation of individual correlations between indicators by dimension usefulness of having a core survey (EU-SILC) possibility of using all the available surveys of the ESS (and outside the ESS) opportunities of data matching usefulness of core variables to compute synthetic indicators with variables coming from different surveys Experimentation of data matching

Improve dissemination a yearly dissemination based on EU-SILC in the short term, publish before the end of the TF a first trial of dashboard with indicators of quality of life for UE, with existing data be careful to timeliness : availability before the end of the current year a more comprehensive report (every five years ?) based on many surveys be careful of the comparability between countries for these surveys (quality)

Discussion about subjective dimensions Continuum between subjective and objective dimensions Discussion about the required quality for NSI variables used in the computation of subjective dimensions can or not come from official surveys Question of the introduction of subjective variables in official surveys (as in some countries of the UE)

Which subjective dimensions of quality of life ? Life satisfaction in general The most popular question Satisfaction related to specific aspects standard of living, family relations, public services,.. Economic strain ? More related to objective dimensions ? Confidence In in other people in the institutions in the future… Tensions between social groups Age, income, origin

Pending questions Introduction of (more) subjective questions in official surveys ? Use of existing surveys out of the ESS Quality Timeliness Assessment and support for improvement from the ESS

To be discussed in the future in the TF propositions for modifications in existing surveys, without increasing the burden on NSI Revision of the EU-SILC regulation with rolling modules instead of ad-hoc modules ? integration of questions about QoL in future European surveys, such as health, safety, wealth surveys improve comparability for HBS and TUS, which can provide indicators

Next steps Sofia conference Next meetings Opportunities First propositions at the end of the year in Brussels First draft of the report at the beginning of 2011 Opportunities Revision of the regulation for EU-SILC Preparation of the 2013 ad-hoc module about subjective well-being New surveys in the ESS