Measuring well-being in the digital age

Digital transformation permeates virtually every aspect of people’s lives and affects their well-being in ways that are neither strictly positive nor negative. Better measuring the impacts of digital technologies and data on well-being is essential to ensuring a positive and inclusive digital economy and society. This Going Digital Toolkit note identifies the dimensions of different well-being frameworks, including from a digital perspective. The note compares available options for measuring well-being in the digital age before setting out the need to move on from varied and piecemeal national efforts to develop measures that can be used to gain comparisons and insights across countries. In particular, this note calls for a co-ordinated approach to better understanding the linkages between digital technologies and well-being through a standardised module in ICT usage surveys. Examples of survey questions used by various countries are showcased.