OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well‑being (2025 Update)

Executive summary

Subjective well-being data complement objective measures of well-being by providing important information on how people perceive their life experiences

Subjective well-being data reveal how people think about and experience their lives. Each component of subjective well-being – life evaluation (reflective assessments, such as satisfaction with life), affect (feelings or emotional states) and eudaimonia (a sense of worth, meaning and purpose) – captures a distinct and meaningful facet of people’s subjective life experiences. These data serve as an important complement to objective measures of economic and social progress and can yield policy-relevant insights when collected and analysed in a rigorous manner. Subjective well-being data should be among the outcomes considered when monitoring social trends and benchmarking broad societal progress. These data are intrinsically important but can also serve as an early warning sign for developments in other well-being outcomes and thus can support policy design and evaluation – for example, to inform strategic planning, performance frameworks and budgeting processes.

This second edition of the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being updates guidance for data producers interested in measuring subjective well-being in a statistically sound manner in line with good international practice

The first edition of the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being, published in 2013, provided data producers with the evidence and tools they need to measure subjective well-being in official statistics. The 2013 Guidelines sought to improve the quality and usefulness of subjective well-being data in several ways: by providing explicit instructions on question wording, answer scales and survey implementation details; by giving guidance to data users on how to best analyse subjective well-being data; and, ultimately, by enhancing the international comparability of subjective well-being statistics. Ten years on, the profile of subjective well-being data in official statistics has grown considerably: close to 90% of OECD member states collect life satisfaction data in nationally representative household surveys. While international practice has converged around a standard measure of life satisfaction, there are still differences in current approaches to measuring affect and eudaimonia.

This second edition of the OECD Guidelines builds on the foundation of the first edition. It reiterates some of the measurement recommendations and best practices first outlined in 2013, while clarifying and streamlining recommendations in some areas to enhance their relevance and value in light of new policy demands and research results. This edition pulls in new evidence that has been published in the intervening decade, including practical findings from national statistical office measurement practice, to make updated recommendations that are designed to increase the inclusion of subjective well-being measures in official data, move towards greater convergence in measurement practice at the international level, and enhance the usefulness of subjective well-being for policy. The core module has been shortened but retains two measures – one on satisfaction with life, and one on the sense that that the things one does in life are worthwhile – and it introduces a new measure on pain. Other updates in this edition include a refined definition of eudaimonia, which more clearly illustrates the constructs to be included in this measurement module. A clearer distinction between affect and mental health measures is also made, along with guidance on when to use the two approaches. This edition also expands advice in other areas to account for advances in the evidence base and to enhance the global relevance of the recommended measures. Experimental measures, newly introduced in this volume, cover measures of subjective well-being with a strong relational component, such as balance and harmony in one’s life, a connection to future generations and an emotional connection to the natural world.

Recommended question modules can be tailored based on user needs

This report contains the following practical resources to support survey designers and statistical agencies to capture data on subjective well-being in household and time use surveys, regardless of how far advanced their current measurement practice is:

• A shortened core module of three priority subjective well-being measures

• Streamlined extended modules for each component of subjective well-being, including resources for time use surveys

• A new, cross-cutting experimental module and three experimental question banks

Each survey module is accompanied by detailed implementation instructions, outlining the anticipated length of the module and practical guidance for enumerators, information on the original source of measures, and instructions for how to report the resulting data. The introductory chapter shares general good practice in subjective well-being measurement that is applicable to each of the survey modules that follow, covering topics such as survey design, sampling and target population, mode, question phrasing and placement, answer scale formulation, and data analysis and interpretation. Detailed information on the process of updating the OECD Guidelines and evidence supporting the updates and changes made to specific modules are described at length in the report Annex.