1. Measuring National Well-being: ...the story so far....
Glenn Everett
Measuring National Well-being Programme Director
Royal Statistical Society 7 April 2014

2. 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.

3. 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 well-being.”
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

4. 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

5. 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 well-being.
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.

6. Need for a framework...

7. 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

8. 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’
Social
Economy
Environment 8 8 8

9. 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%

10. 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%

11. Quiz
What percentage of total energy consumption was from renewable sources in 2011? a) 4.1% b) 23.2% c) 33% d) 45.4%

12. Quiz
What percentage of total energy consumption was from renewable sources in 2011? a) 4.1% b) 23.2% c) 33% d) 45.4%

13. 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%

14. 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%

15. Quiz
What was the value of Human Capital in 2012? a) £817b b) £8.2t c) £17.9t d) £81.7t

16. Quiz
What was the value of Human Capital in 2012? a) £817b b) £8.2t c) £17.9t d) £81.7t

17. ONS’ Four Subjective Well-being Questions
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? (Evaluative)
Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile? (Eudemonic)
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (Experience or affect - positive)
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’

18. Overall change between 2011/12 & 2012/13

19. 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.

20. Economy Household perspective – income and expenditure
Human Capital estimates
Economic well-being
Household satellite accounts:
Childcare
Adult care
Volunteering
Transport
Housing
Laundry
Cooking

21. 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)

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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.

28. 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:

29. Measuring National Well-being
To be continued......

30. Better statistics Better decisions Better lives
Measuring National Well-being
QUESTIONs?..
..comments..
..Discussion
Better statistics Better decisions Better lives
Discuss National Well-being