27 July 2011

How do you measure wellbeing and happiness


The Office for National Statistics in UK was asked by the Prime Minister David Cameron last November to find out - or at least to work out how to find out.
After a six month-long consultation the wellbeing project came to the conclusion of a crucial difference:
* happiness is one intangible thing.
* wellbeing is - they say - measurable in the same way our economy is.

The project leader said:
It is essential that the set of measures of well-being is relevant and well-based in what matters to people, both as individuals and for the UK as a whole

So, how will they do it? The study has been split into a search for two types of indicators - subjective ones about how we feel and objective measures of things that affect our wellbeing.

On top on 4 extra questions in the Integrated Household Survey (IHS), they plan to investigate four major areas:
* Childhood
* Economy and inequality
* Health
* Work/life balance

The first results are expected back in July 2012.


Source: The Guardian

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