Since 2011, the OECD has assessed the state of multidimensional well-being for people, the planet and future generations through its flagship publication, How’s Life? Drawing on the OECD Well-being Framework, the How’s Life? series of reports document OECD country performance on key material, social, environmental, civic and relational well-being outcomes, highlighting inequalities between population groups, differences between countries and trends over time. The accompanying OECD How’s Life? Well-being Database (http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/fu) is updated on a quarterly basis.
Social connections have always featured in these monitoring efforts, measured through a small set of internationally comparable indicators related to time spent in social interactions, perceived social support, and, since 2024, loneliness. This publication builds on the findings of the most recent How’s Life? report, How's Life? 2024 Well-being and Resilience in Times of Crisis, and uses new high quality data sources to provide the most complete picture thus far of social connectedness across OECD countries.
The report was prepared by the OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE), under the direction of Romina Boarini. The report was co-authored by Lara Fleischer and Jessica Mahoney, with editorial support from Carrie Exton. Jessica Mahoney led the statistical work for this volume. Gerard Eijsink authored an early draft of Chapter 5, and conducted statistical analysis on national microdata from Colombia, England, France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. Martine Zaïda, Anne-Lise Faron and Taylor Kelly provided support throughout on communication co‑ordination and formatting.
The publication benefitted from the valuable comments of delegates from the Working Party on Well-being Statistics (WPWB), the Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy (CSSP) and the Working Party on Social Policy (WPSP). We are also grateful for comments received from Hans Rocha IJzerman (Annency Behavioral Science Lab); Ilona Kish (Public Libraries 2030); David Lankes (University of Syracuse); Alana Officer and Christopher Mikton (World Health Organization); and Marissa Plouin and Alexandre Lloyd (Social Policy Division, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD).