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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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, year olds
Proportion long-term unemployed year olds
Proportion with qualifying education 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20. Dessimination of indicators?
Long-term unemployed

21. Thank you for your attention
any questions?