In 2014, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) developed Quality of Life Indicators to monitor well-being beyond economic performance.
Spain’s Quality of Life Indicators
Abstract
In 2011, the Permanent Commission of the Higher Council of Statistics developed a Working Group to report on existing initiatives related to the “Measuring of progress, well-being and sustainable development”. This report was completed in April 2012 and included a set of 60 recommendations on well-being indicators, economic accounts, household surveys, and the measurement of the environment, and sustainability. Subsequently, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) formally published their Quality of Life Indicators in 2014. The indicator set is released annually.
The Quality of Life Indicators cover nine dimensions of well-being: material living conditions, work, health, education, leisure and social relationships, physical and personal security, governance and basic rights, environment, and general life experience. Each dimension comprises a series of indicators, drawn from existing national surveys such as the Survey on Living Conditions (Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida, ECV) and disaggregated by groups (by sex, age, type of household, level of income, education, nationality, and urbanization) and geographical scope (national and European levels).
In 2017, INE experimented with and developed a composite indicator, the Multidimensional Indicator of Quality of Life (Indicador Multidimensional de Calidad de Vida, IMCV), integrating it in the report on Quality of Life Indicators. The IMCV aggregates the relevant Quality of Life Indicators for each of the 9 dimensions. It is released annually.
INE’s Quality of Life Indicators provide a multidimensional overview of well-being in Spain, intended to complement traditional economic measures such as GDP.
INE (2023), Indicadores de Calidad de Vida 2023 [Quality of Life Indicators 2023], https://www.ine.es/ss/Satellite?L=es_ES&c=INEPublicacion_C&cid=1259937499084&p=1254735110672&pagename=ProductosYServicios%2FPYSLayout¶m1=PYSDetalleGratuitas
INE (2022), Indicador Multidimensional de Calidad de Vida (IMCV) Año 2021 [Multidimensional Indicator of Quality of Life (IMCV) Year 2021], https://www.ine.es/prensa/experimental_ind_multi_calidad_vida_2021.pdf
INE (2021), Indicador Multidimensional de Calidad de Vida (IMCV): Projecto Técnico [Multidimensional Indicator of Quality of Life (IMCV): Technical Project], https://www.ine.es/experimental/imcv/exp_calidad_vida_multi.pdf
INE (2019), Análisis multidimensional [Multidimensional Analysis], https://www.ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&pagename=ProductosYServicios%2FPYSLayout&cid=1259947314645&L=0
OECD, How’s Life in your country? Country notes, Spain, https://www.oecd.org/wise/measuring-well-being-and-progress.htm#country-notes
