How's life and its research agenda

For almost 10 years, focusing on people's well-being and societal progress, the OECD has been looking not only at the functioning of the economic system but also at the diverse experiences and living conditions of people and households. Read more

"How's Life?"

Released on 12 October 2011, this new publication gathers and analyses indicators on the well-being of individuals and households. The report is structured along the dimensions identified by the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission, and focuses on both average conditions of households and specific population groups in OECD and selected non-OECD countries.

Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being

Released on 20 March 2013, these Guidelines represent the first attempt to provide international recommendations on collecting, publishing, and analysing subjective well-being data. The Guidelines also outline why measures of subjective well-being are relevant for monitoring and policy making, and why national statistical agencies have a critical role to play in enhancing the usefulness of existing measures. The Guidelines include a number of prototype survey modules on subjective well-being that national and international agencies can use in their surveys.

Your Better Life Index

Your Better Life Index

Your Better Life Index allows you to visualise well-being outcomes in OECD countries; it is an interactive tool through which you can look at how countries perform according to the importance you give to the various components of well-being. You are also able to compare well-being inequalities between men and women.

Visitors to Your Better Life Index are able to compare their well-being priorities to those of other users by country, age and gender, and share their results. The Index is available in French and Russian and is embeddable for websites and blogs.

An updated version of the Index will be launched during OECD Week 2013 (http://oecd.org/forum/).