Northern Ireland’s 2024-2027 Programme for Government, “Doing What Matters Most”, is organised around nine policy priorities with the goal of improving population well-being. The Programme is accompanied by a wellbeing indicator framework and indicator dashboard to track long-term well-being at the population level.
Northern Ireland’s Programme for Government Wellbeing Framework and dashboard
Abstract
In February 2025, the Northern Ireland Executive agreed upon the 2024-2027 Programme for Government, entitled “Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most”. As part of the Programme for Government, a Wellbeing Framework and a corresponding indicator dashboard were developed to assess performance and to monitor progress across ten strategic domains of well-being. The framework and indicators were selected by a cross-departmental working group of statisticians and policy experts and then were finalized through stakeholder consultation.
To track performance and progress across the priorities and cross-cutting missions set out in the Programme for Government, dashboard indicators encompass the social, environmental, economic, and democratic components of well-being recognised by the Northern Ireland Executive as essential for societal flourishing. They are gathered and organised in a Wellbeing Framework comprised of ten strategic domains: thriving children; cleaner environment; equal society; healthier lives; brighter futures; stronger economy; safer communities; caring society; better homes; living peacefully. Each domain comprises a set of specific indicators drawn from official statistics. The final set consists of 52 indicators.
The online dashboard allows to navigate the indicators across the ten domains and has been designed to be dynamic and user-friendly both for casual users and expert analysts. The indicators are set to be updated on an ongoing basis, providing a snapshot of Northern Ireland’s performance across well-being domains. They are colour-coded according to their evolution over time (improving, no change, or worsening between the most recent data and a baseline figure). Each indicator is also disaggregated, allowing users to browse them by local government district, sex, religion, disability, ethnic group, deprivation, urban or rural, year group, and socio-economic disadvantage in children (assessed by pupil entitlement to free school meals), where available.
The aim of the creation of the Framework and indicator dashboard is to provide a transparent, consistent, and strategic view of societal well-being in Northern Ireland, that enables users to assess performance over time and across sub-populations. The dashboard has received unanimous political support across the Northern Ireland Executive and has been considered to elevate the role of official statistics and the analytical community in strategic government decision-making. The dashboard has also been praised for its ability to communicate complex data simply and effectively, and has received an award for excellence in government analysis communication by the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics (ONS). The performance tracking from the dashboard will be used to inform future iterations of the Programme for Government. During the entire implementation period of the Programme for Government, stakeholders and users will be solicited to gather feedback on the online dashboard and the indicators will be subject to regular review to ensure their relevance and appropriateness.
Northern Ireland Executive, PfG Wellbeing Framework website, https://datavis.nisra.gov.uk/executiveofficeni/pfg_wellbeing_dashboard.html (accessed on 26 May 2025).
Northern Ireland Executive (2025), Notes, https://datavis.nisra.gov.uk/executiveofficeni/pfg_wellbeing_dashboard.html?tab=help.
Northern Ireland Executive (2025), Programme for Government 2024-2027 ‘Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most’, https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/articles/programme-government-2024-2027-our-plan-doing-what-matters-most.
Northern Ireland Executive (2025), Programme for Government 2024-2027 ‘Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most’- Documents, https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/publications/programme-government-2024-2027-our-plan-doing-what-matters-most-documents.
UK Government Analysis Function (2025), Programme for Government Wellbeing Framework Development Team, NISRA, https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/case-studies/programme-for-government-wellbeing-framework-development-team-nisra/.
OECD, How’s Life in your country? Country note: United Kingdom, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/how-s-life-2024-country-notes_2603b12c-en/united-kingdom_0c1cb30a-en.html.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
© OECD 2025
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Attribution – you must cite the work.
Translations – you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text: In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and the translation, only the text of the original work should be considered valid.
Adaptations – you must cite the original work and add the following text: This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.
Third-party material – the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and for any claims of infringement.
You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.
Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shall be Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one.
