Quality of Life and Development Indicators and Measurement Indices

Presented By: Ms. Nishu Kanwar Bhati, Ph.D

Quality of life refers to the level of well-being of the society and the degree of satisfaction of a

number of human needs.

«standard of living»

degree of excellence in ones lifestyle»

«A concept involving a relative assessment of human well-being in terms of the overall standards of living of society and the degree of excellence of an individual’s life style»

QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE CONTEXT OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Idea of Development The development of a nation or community is now seen to be concerned with two elements –

general resource development and

human resource development.

• General resource development is generally meant the development of primary and secondary industry, commerce and trade and infrastructures such as transport, communications, medical services and the like.

• This type of development of course also benefits individuals by providing and increasing nation-wide services and systems which enhance general well-being.

• The level of general resource development of a country is generally expressed by the index of Gross National Product (GNP).

General resource development

Human resource development

• Human resource development, however, is more directly concerned with upgrading human qualities, mainly through education and training, to enable individuals to develop to their maximum potential.

• Measured in terms of Human Development Index(HDI)

Knowledge

Living Standard

Longevity

Dimensions of HDI

Indicators for Quality of Life Development

Economic

Subjective Social

Objective Social

GDPGNP

health/nutritioneducation/learning

housing and physical environment

working life social security personal

safety andjustice leisure and use of time social

participation human freedom

individuals’ reactions and

perceptions about quality of life.

Perceived levels of happiness and life satisfaction in regard to work income health leisure time family life housing environment government and others ESCAP points out an interesting lack of correlation between the

three categories of indicators. While income levels can go up people surveyed can claim

that they are less happy and so on.

Professor Yassin, also stresses, that these elements cannot be made operational and that quality of life development cannot be sustained unless the adult population has a set of values which will foster and

promote their development. These values are as follows:

• Diligence and Industriousness:• Discipline and Respect for

Knowledge:• Integrity and moral ethics:• Tolerance:• Loyalty:

The need for measurement beyond GDP

• GDP is an aggregate measure and as such cannot inform us about wealth distribution amongst the population

• GDP and other economic measures need to be complemented with indicators covering other important domains in order to measure well-being

8+1 dimensions of quality of life

The ‘Beyond GDP’ conference (2007), the Stiglitz/Sen/Fitoussi (SSF) Commission (2009), the Eurostat Feasibility study for Well-Being Indicators (2008) and the European Commission ‘GDP and beyond’ communication (2009). The European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) set up a Sponsorship Group (SpG) on Measuring Progress, Well-being and Sustainable Development

• Material living conditions (income, consumption and material conditions)

• Productive or main activity• Health• Education• Leisure and social interactions• Economic and physical safety• Governance and basic rights• Natural and living environment• Overall experience of life

Material living conditions

Three sub-dimensions: income, consumption and material conditions (deprivation and

housing)

Productive or main activity

Indicators measuring both the quantity and the quality of jobs available (working hours, balancing work and non-working life, safety and ethics of employment)

Health

measured using objective health outcome indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality, the number of healthy life years, but also more subjective indicators, such as access to healthcare and self-evaluation of one’s health.

Education

population’s educational attainment,

the number of early school leavers,

self-assessed and assessed skills and

participation in life-long learning.

LEISURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS measured in terms of how often citizens

spend time with people at sporting or cultural events or if they volunteer for different types of organisations.

Economic and physical safety

Safety is measured in terms of physical safety (e.g. the number of homicides per country) and economic safety. Safety is measured in terms of physical safety (e.g. the number of homicides per country) and economic safety.

The ability to face unexpected expenses and having or not having arrears are therefore used as proxy variables

Natural and living environmentBoth subjective (individuals’ own

perceptions) and objective (the amount of pollutants present in the air) indicators are included.

Overall experience of lifelife satisfaction (cognitive

appreciation), affect (a person’s feelings or

emotional states, both positive and negative, typically measured with reference to a particular point in time) and

eudaemonics (a sense of having meaning and purpose in one’s life, or good psychological functioning.).

Measurement Indices

World Happiness Report

• Developed by the United Nations and published recently along with the HDI, this report combines both objective and subjective measures to rank countries by happiness, which is deemed as the ultimate outcome of a high quality of life.

• It uses surveys from real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity to derive the final score.

Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)

• Developed by sociologist Morris David Morris in the 1970s, based on basic literacy, infant mortality, and life expectancy

Happy Planet Index

Uses each country'secological footprint as an indicator

The 2012 list is instead topped by Costa Rica,Vietnam and Colombia.[9]

Livability

• Economist Intelligence Unit's • Where-to-be-born Index and • Mercer's Quality of Living Reports.

Legatum Prosperity Index 

An annual ranking, developed by the Legatum Institute, of 142 countries.

Factors including wealth, economic growth, education, health, personal well-being, and quality of life.

In the 2014 rankings, Norway tops the list followed by Switzerland and New Zealand.

The 8 sub-indexes are: Economy Entrepreneurship & Opportunity Governance Education Health Safety & Security Personal Freedom Social Capital

The Were-to-be-born Material well-being as measured by GDP per capita (in $, at

2006 constant PPPS) Life expectancy at birth The quality of family life based primarily on divorce rates The state of political freedoms Job security (measured by the unemployment rate) Climate (measured by two variables: the average deviation of

minimum and maximum monthly temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius; and the number of months in the year with less than 30mm rainfall)

Personal physical security ratings (based primarily on recorded homicide rates and ratings for risk from crime and terrorism)

Quality of community life (based on membership in social organisations)

Governance (measured by ratings for corruption) Gender equality (measured by the share of seats in parliament

held by women)

OECD Better Life Index

• Housing: housing conditions and spendings (e.g. real estate pricing)

• Income: household income and financial wealth• Jobs: earnings, job security and unemployment• Community: quality of social support network• Education: education and what you get out of it• Environment: quality of environment (e.g. 

environmental health)• Governance: involvement in democracy• Health• Life Satisfaction: level of happiness• Safety: murder and assault rates• Work-life balance

What is Development?

•Though the term development usually refers to economic progress, it can apply to political, social, and technological progress as well.

Economic Development Social Development

Measuring Economic Development

Gross Domestic ProductGDP – total value of goods and services produced in a country

Gross National ProductGNP – Including income from investments abroad

Purchasing Power Parity PPP – Takes into account local cost of living and is usually expressed per capita

GDP/GNP per capitaTotal value divided by the total population

Problems of using economic indicators such as GDP/GNP/PPP to measure

development

Currency fluctuationsPrices of goods and services (PPP)Distribution of WealthDependency on one industry (skills, location, fluctuations)Tax and govt spending on public goodsInformal economy and unpaid work eg child care and subsistence farming, barteringMonetary value of goods traded can fluctuate, especially agricultureAccurate info difficult to obtain, high informal sector, rural economy, ineffective governance% of public and private sectorRemittances from migrant workers are not included

Problems of using economic indicators such as GDP/GNP/PPP to measure

development

Negative externalities of economic growth are not included (eg pollution, environmental damage)Environmental services such as the benefits derived from standing forest are not included.

Basically it is only a measure of the economic value of what is produced and paid for. Does not take into account what was produced, the environmental and social costs, how the wealth is distributed, who spends it and what it is spent on.

Social indices

Demographic statistics on mortality and fertility can be used to measure development.

Infant mortality Life expectancyFertility rate

Other social indices

There are a whole range of indicators which give us some idea about people’s quality of life. These can be broadly described as social indices although they could be linked to the economy, environment and politics.

Access to safe water Crime levelsAccess to broadband internet connection Subjective life satisfactionMale and female literacy rates ObesityNumber of people per car Corruption perception indexPop per doc Number in higher educationFood consumption Energy consumptionMortality rates for diseases Pollution levels air/water

Relative / absolute poverty

The two different Human Poverty Indices reflect there are different definitions of poverty.

Absolute Poverty – Those living in absolute poverty are unable to satisfy their basic needs for survival; water, clothing, food, shelter and basic medicine. World Bank figure of $1.25 per day.

Relative Poverty – A level of poverty relative to the rest of the population of the country. For example below 50% of average earning.

Multiple component indices(composite indicators)

All the indices so far have been single component indices. There are also multiple component indices. These combine a number of single component indices to give a combined score.

Human Development Index (0-1)HDI – PPP, life expectancy, adult literacy, average number of years schooling

Human Poverty Index 1 (for developing countries)HPI-1 - % of pop with life expectancy of <40, % of adult illiteracy, % without safe water, % without access to health services, % of under fives who are underweight

Human Poverty Index 2 (for developed countries)HPI-2 - % of pop with life expectancy of <60, % of adult illiteracy, % of people below the poverty line (50% of medium income), rate of long term employment >12 months

Other multiple component indices(composite indicators)

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) and Gender-related Development Index (GDI) measure gender inequality.

Other quality of life indicators could measure a variety of social/economic/political and environmental indicators.

THANK YOU