ONS Consultation on Well-being Domains and Indicators
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The Measuring National Well-being Programme
The Office for National Statistics Measuring National Well-being (MNW) Programme was launched in November 2010 to provide a fuller understanding of ‘how society is doing’ than economic measures alone can provide. It started with a national debate on ‘What matters to you?’ to improve understanding of what should be included in measures of the nation’s well-being.
The aim of the programme is to develop and publish an accepted and trusted set of National Statistics that helps people to understand and monitor national well-being.
Domains and Indicators Consultation
ONS launched a consultation to seek views on a proposed set of domains (aspects of national well-being) and headline indicators which are outlined in the discussion paper (ONS, 2011). The consultation will be open until 23 January 2012 and you can find out how to respond here .
The domains and indicators were developed from responses to the national debate, research into well-being and international initiatives.
Well-being Domains
Individual well-being
Individual well-being is an area which the national debate showed was important to people. It is proposed that this domain should include individual’s feelings of satisfaction with life, whether they feel their life is worthwhile and their positive and negative emotions. That is, this domain will include only the headline subjective well-being measures to be derived from new ONS survey data. Subjective measures of other themes would be included with objective measures in the other domains.
Factors directly affecting individual well-being
Our relationships was chosen as a domain because it reflects many of the responses received during the national debate and because many theories of well-being report the importance of this area to an individual’s well-being. The scope of this domain is intended to be the extent and type of individuals’ relationships to their immediate family, their friends and the community around them.
Health also includes areas which were thought to be important by respondents to the national debate. An individual’s health is recognised as an important component of their well-being. It is anticipated that this domain would contain both subjective and objective measures of physical and mental health.
What we do aims to include work and leisure activities and the balance between them, all of which were common themes in the national debate responses. In this domain there are likely to be both subjective and objective measures of aspects of work and leisure activities and of work-life balance.
Where we live is about an individual’s dwelling, their local environment and the type of community in which they live. Measures will be sought which reflect having a safe, clean and pleasant environment, access to facilities and being part of a cohesive community.
Personal finance is intended to include household income and wealth, its distribution and stability. Measures within this would also be used during analysis to address the concepts of poverty and equality mentioned in the national debate responses.
Education and skills is chosen as various aspects of education and life-long learning were mentioned during the national debate. The scope of this domain is the stock of human capital in the labour market with some more information about levels of educational achievement and skills.
More contextual domains
Governance is the domain which is intended to include democracy, trust in institutions and views about the UK’s interaction with other countries. All of which were included in responses to the national debate.
The economy is an important contextual measure for national well-being. The scope of this domain is intended to be measures of economic output and stock.
The natural environment is proposed as a domain in order to reflect areas mentioned during the national debate such as climate change, the natural environment, the effects our activities have on the global environment and natural disasters. It is planned to include measures which reflect these areas at the national level. ONS has taken Defra advice on the indicators for this area.
See also
UK's Measuring National Well-being Programme
