Measuring national happiness

Your Better Life Index is an interactive tool that allows you to see how countries perform according to the importance you give to each of 11 topics – housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance – that contribute to well‐being in OECD countries.

Your Better Life Index currently profiles the 34 OECD member countries across the 11 topics of well‐being, and will eventually also include the OECD’s six partner countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa), representing the world’s major economies.

The Index contains an overall description of the quality of life in each country, followed by its performance across the 25 individual indicators that make up the 11 topics of well‐being.

You can put different weights on each of the topics, and thus decide for yourself what contributes most to well‐being, or see how prioritising specific issues of well‐being affects the overall picture.

A New York Times article provides further reflection.