Published on FRANCE 24 (http://www.france24.com/en)
Home > OECD launches happiness index
OECD launches happiness index
By blade
Created 24/05/2011 - 11:23
A so-called "happiness index" to measure wellbeing and perceptions of living
conditions came into life at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development on Tuesday.
The index covers 11 areas: housing, incomes, employment, social relationships,
education, the environment, the administration of institutions, health, general
satisfaction, security and the balance between work and family.
The head of statistics at the OECD, Martine Durand, said that the idea was to
measure more closely matters which people thought were important to them.
The index is intended to enable people in the 34 OECD member countries to
compare their countries according to criteria which they think are important,
Durand said.
The OECD hopes soon to make the index applicable to other countries, beginning
with emerging economies such as Brazil.
The index is the first concrete result of a report by former Nobel economics
prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz, OECD officials said.
The index comes into being as the Paris-based OECD celebrates its 50th
anniversary and immediately before a summit of Group of Eight (G8) leaders in
Deauville, northern France.
France holds the presidency of the G8, and in September 2009 a commission
headed by Stiglitz submitted to Sarkozy proposals for improving the way growth
is measured to overcome shortcomings in the main measure of growth, the index
of gross domestic product (GDP).
The OECD has worked for some years on ways of calculating a wellbeing index to
complement the GDP and other indicators.
* AFP
* Lifestyle
Source URL: http://www.france24.com/en/20110524-oecd-launches-happiness-index
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