Long abstract

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

Social problems rarely have a single cause. For example, tackling social exclusion involves simultaneously addressing barriers to labour market integration, health problems and low education. Coping with an ageing society requires new approaches to health care and employment, as well as to pensions.

Social indicators provide the broad perspective needed for any international comparison and assessment of social trends, outcomes and policies. By linking status and response indicators across a broad range of policy areas, social indicators help readers to identify whether and how the broad thrust of policies and societal actions are addressing the key social issues that confront OECD societies.

Social indicators provide a concise overview of social trends and policies while paying due attention to the different national conditions in which such policies are being pursued. The social indicators in Society at a Glance may be represented along a two-dimensional classification. The first dimension corresponds to three main goals of social policy, i.e. self-sufficiency, equity and social cohesion. The second dimension corresponds to the nature of the indicators, i.e. social context, social status and societal responses. This edition includes a wide range of information on social issues including demography, family characteristics, employment, working mothers, out-of-work replacement rates, poverty persistence, social expenditure, health care expenditure, subjective well-being and suicides.

This report also includes a "guide" to help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators and an attempt to take stock of the role of social indicators for the broader agenda of measuring the well-being of OECD citizens and societies.

www.oecd.org/els/social/indicators/SAG