in content lists or on the content page.The international community has recently begun to question the feasibility of GDP as a measure of people’s well-being. France and the UK, among other countries, are planning to adopt other well-being indicators. Sitra decided to find out what kind of new well-being indicators are currently being developed in various countries.
The results of this study have now been compiled into a report published by Sitra Ensiselvitys hyvinvointi-indikaattoreista: mittareiden vertailu ja kehittämiskohteet (A preliminary study on well-being indicators: a comparison of indicators and their development).
Fifteen different well-being indicators were analysed and their strengths and weaknesses assessed in terms of measuring well-being. Most of the indicators were either extensions or variations of GDP, but there were also a number of new, so-called subjective indicators, which measure well-being as it is experienced by individuals.
In Finland the main shortcomings in the well-being indicators are to do with subjective indicators and indicators gauging non-material well-being. The trends in the intellectual welfare of Finns has given reason to some concern in recent years, but there is currently no definitive or reliable overall analysis available on the development of intellectual well-being.
Sitra’s preliminary study will be used by a working group from the prime minister’s office assigned the task of examining new well-being indicators for Finland.
Further information
Timo Hämäläinen, Sitra Fellow, Strategic Research
Tel. +358 9 6189 9256, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi
Publication details
Download publication (pdf file, in Finnish) »
Ensiselvitys hyvinvointi-indikaattoreista: mittareiden vertailu ja kehittämiskohteet
Jukka Hoffrén, Inka Lemmetyinen, Leeni Pitkä
Helsinki, Sitra, 2010
ISBN 978-951-563-727-7
ISSN 1796-7112
Sitra Reports 32