How’s Life? 2015 MEASURING WELL-BEING www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com How’s Life? 2015 Measuring Well-being www.ebook3000.com This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area Please cite this publication as: OECD (2015), How’s Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being, OECD Publishing, Paris http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/how_life-2015-en ISBN 978-92-64-21101-8 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-23817-6 (PDF) Annual: ISSN 2308-9660 (print) ISSN 2308-9679 (online) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda © OECD 2015 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the source and copyright owner is given All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to rights@oecd.org Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at info@copyright.com or the Centre franỗais dexploitation du droit de copie (CFC) at contact@cfcopies.com www.ebook3000.com Foreword Foreword H ow’s Life? is part of the OECD Better Life Initiative, which aims to promote “better policies for better lives”, in line with the OECD’s overarching mission It is a statistical report released every two years that documents a wide range of well-being outcomes, and how they vary over time, between population groups, and across countries This assessment is based on a multi-dimensional framework covering 11 dimensions of well-being, and four different types of resources that help to support well-being over time Each issue also includes special chapters that provide an in-depth look at specific aspects of well-being The 2015 edition features a focus on child well-being, the role of volunteering in well-being, and measuring well-being at the regional level The report was prepared by the Well-Being and Progress Unit of the OECD Statistics Directorate, with contributions from the Social Policy Division of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (Chapter 4), and the Regional Development Policy Division of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (Chapter 6). Several other OECD Directorates also contributed to the data in this report; all are kindly acknowledged for their contributions and advice. Lead authors for each of the chapters were: Carlotta Balestra (Chapter 5); Monica Brezzi and Paolo Veneri (Chapter 6); Carrie Exton (Chapters 1, and 3); and Dominic Richardson and Clara Welteke (Chapter 4) Elena Tosetto is gratefully acknowledged for providing extensive statistical support and research assistance, particularly in relation to Chapters and Anne-Charlotte Boughalem and Eric Gonnard are also gratefully acknowledged for research and statistical assistance on Chapters 3 and respectively Carrie Exton led the project, which was supervised and edited by Romina Boarini, Marco Mira d’Ercole, and Martine Durand Martine Zaïda is the communications coordinator for How’s Life?, and has provided essential support throughout Sophia Schneidewind is gratefully acknowledged for her work in preparing the country notes that accompany this publication Willem Adema, Rolf Alter, Joaquim Oliveira Martins, Monika Quiesser, Paul Schreyer, Peter van de Ven and the OECD Health Division are kindly acknowledged for their comments on drafts of various chapters Sue Kendall-Bilicki, Vincent Finat-Duclos and Patrick Hamm provided editorial support throughout All are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable assistance, as well as many others who worked behind the scenes to help deliver the book. Finally, the report has benefited from helpful comments on early drafts provided by national delegates to the OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy (all chapters), as well as the Working Party on Social Policy (Chapter 4) and the Working Party on Territorial Indicators (Chapter 6) Their contributions and advice are also kindly acknowledged. How’s life? 2015: Measuring Well-being © OECD 2015 www.ebook3000.com www.ebook3000.com Editorial: Better lives, today and tomorrow Editorial: Better lives, today and tomorrow Investing in tomorrow’s well-being starts today The final months of 2015 will be marked by two defining moments that will shape the well-being of generations to come: the agreement on the final set of Sustainable Development Goals at the UN General Assembly in New York, and the COP21 meeting in Paris – an opportunity for global leaders to take action to address the risks of climate change These events bring into focus the importance of finding new ways to secure and improve well-being here and now, without placing at risk our children’s chances to enjoy well-being later Good decisions about investments for the future rely, among other things, on having good data today How’s Life?, first launched in 2011, is a pioneering report that summarises an extensive range of well-being indicators, putting the latest information on the progress of OECD and partner countries at policy-makers’ and citizens’ fingertips Besides documenting well-being today, this third edition of How’s Life? also offers a first glimpse of future well-being prospects by looking at three key areas First, it considers some of the stocks of natural, human, social and economic resources that can be measured now, and that will shape well-being outcomes in the future Second, it documents well-being outcomes for children, whose future life chances will be affected by the living conditions they face today And third, it offers a special focus on volunteering, which is a key form of investment in social capital, and one which pays dividends for volunteers themselves as well as for wider society now and in the future Every country has room to improve on well-being The analysis of the relative well-being strengths and weaknesses among OECD countries featured in this report shows that while some countries better than others across a wide range of well-being outcomes, no country has it all Some aspects of wellbeing (such as household income, wealth, jobs and life satisfaction) are generally better in OECD countries with the highest levels of GDP per capita, but some high-GDP countries still face challenges in terms of work-life balance, unemployment risk, personal safety and low life expectancy One striking finding shown in this report is just how different the well-being outcomes can be in countries with very similar levels of GDP per capita This underlines the importance of giving more attention to the many factors beyond GDP that shape people’s life experiences It also implies that opportunities exist for countries with similar levels of economic development to learn from one another in terms of “what works” to deliver more inclusive growth and improved well-being How’s life? 2015: Measuring Well-being © OECD 2015 www.ebook3000.com Editorial: Better lives, today and tomorrow Volunteer work can deliver “win-wins” Volunteering makes an important “hidden contribution” to well-being, producing goods and services that are not captured by conventional economic statistics, and building social capital through fostering cooperation and trust When you add up the value of the time people spend on volunteering in OECD countries, it amounts to roughly 2% of GDP per year, on average Not surprisingly, people who have more for themselves can afford to give more to others: volunteering rates tend to be higher among those who are better off, those who have higher levels of education, and those who have jobs (relative to the unemployed) Yet people who give time to their communities also get something back in return: volunteers benefit from the knowledge and skills fostered by volunteer work, and they feel more satisfied with their lives as a whole This virtuous circle of volunteering offers win-wins for well-being However, it also risks further excluding those who have less to start with It should therefore be a priority to open up volunteering opportunities to a wider range of people, for instance through public initiatives such as the Service Civique in France Inequalities in well-being go well beyond income and wealth Inequalities in income are now well-documented for OECD and emerging countries, but new data on inequalities in household net wealth are even more striking On average in the 17 OECD countries for which data are available, households in the top 1% of the distribution own more wealth than households in the bottom 60% combined In those same countries, wealth is much less equally distributed than income: while the top 10% earn only 25% of total income, they own 50% of the total wealth Inequalities in well-being go well beyond income and wealth, however This report offers several different perspectives on well-being gaps One is the large differences in wellbeing between regions within a single country – gaps that can be as large or larger than differences between OECD countries For example, regional employment rates in Italy range from 40% in Campania to 73% in Bolzano, which is comparable to the gap between the national employment rate in Greece (49%) and Iceland (82%) Where people live has an impact on the quality of the air they breathe, the services they have access to, and the prevailing level of income inequality With around 40% of public spending and two thirds of public investment carried out by sub-national governments in the OECD area, this regional dimension to well-being cannot be ignored Intergenerational inequalities in well-being take on many different forms On average, people under 30 are more likely than those aged 50 or over to feel that they have friends or relatives that they can count on in troubled times The younger generation of workingage adults are also much more likely than previous generations to have completed an upper secondary education Yet these advantages are not necessarily coupled with better economic opportunities for younger people In two-thirds of OECD countries, younger people (aged 15-24) are more likely than prime-aged workers (25-54 years old) to be unemployed for one year or more – and in the worst cases, the long-term unemployment rate is more than double among younger workers In addition, the steep increase in long-term unemployment that has occurred since 2009 in several countries has often How’s life? 2015: Measuring Well-being © OECD 2015 www.ebook3000.com Editorial: Better lives, today and tomorrow disproportionately affected younger workers This presents an important risk factor for future well-being Not all children are getting the best possible start in life Giving children a good start in life is important for well-being here and now, but it also improves a child’s life chances later The evidence reviewed in this report shows that some children are getting a much better start than others Income poverty affects child in 7 in the OECD area, and 10% of children live in jobless households Around in 10 children aged 11, 13 and 15 report having been bullied at least twice in the past two months, with this share rising to more than 15% in some countries Socio-economic background looms large in child well-being disparities Higher family affluence is associated with better child health, as well as a happier school life Conversely, children in less wealthy families feel more pressure in school, say that they like school less, find fewer of their classmates to be kind and helpful, and are more likely to be bullied in school Life satisfaction, skills in reading and problem-solving, communication with parents and intentions to vote are all lower among children from families with poorer socio-economic backgrounds Countries that better for children often better for adults, but well-being outcomes for these two groups are not always well-aligned In most OECD countries, the poverty rate for children is higher than for the population in general Meanwhile, some countries that perform comparatively well in adult well-being less well in child well-being This implies that these countries need to better for their children if they are to maintain the levels of well-being enjoyed by today’s adults over time Putting the future in focus Resources for future well-being need to be monitored today if they are to be managed effectively This edition of How’s Life? includes for the first time a set of illustrative indicators for elements of the natural, human, social and economic “capital stocks” that support well-being both now and in the future It highlights some of the key risk factors in these areas – ranging from increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases to rising obesity, and from recent falls in trust in governments, to low levels of investment in economic assets (such as buildings, infrastructure, machinery and equipment) While today’s picture is only a partial one, bringing this information together in one place, and showing comparative trends over time and across countries, gives a new perspective on current well-being achievements and prospects for their maintenance over time Better data for better lives OECD work on well-being highlights that new data sources (ranging from data on household wealth and its distribution, to job quality and subjective well-being) are instrumental to develop our understanding of progress in new ways But in every well-being dimension there is still more to to improve the quality and comparability of available data The good news is that our ability to measure progress towards better lives is rapidly How’s life? 2015: Measuring Well-being © OECD 2015 www.ebook3000.com Editorial: Better lives, today and tomorrow progressing Integrating this diverse information can provide the basis for a more holistic approach to policy-making, as pursued in the OECD’s Inclusive Growth project and New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiative Globally, the new UN Sustainable Development Goals will give new impetus to better policies for better lives worldwide, policies that will need to be underpinned by better data even in areas that have traditionally fallen outside the remit of official statistics The journey continues Martine Durand OECD Chief Statistician Director of the OECD Statistics Directorate How’s life? 2015: Measuring Well-being © OECD 2015 www.ebook3000.com