Measuring National Well-Being – What matters to you?

The National Well-being Project aims to provide a fuller picture of ‘how society is doing’ than is given by economic indicators such as GDP. Understanding the economic performance of a country is important, but there is also a need to look at broader measures such as ‘quality-of-life’ indicators, and the impact that progress has on the environment.

The most reliable measures will include the elements of life that matter to people most, which is why the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is conducting a national debate to find out what these are.

We currently have more than 3,000 responses to the debate and some of the main themes coming through are:

• children and the future, people are concerned about the quality of life their children will have in adulthood
• freedom
• equality and fairness
• health
• job security (not necessarily wealth)
• spirituality/faith/religion
• the importance of a good quality local environment, especially having access to green spaces.

The national debate will run between November 2010 and April 2011, and the findings will inform the development of the measures that will be used to track the nation’s well-being. You can take part in the debate by visiting the ONS website: www.ons.gov.uk/well-being , calling 0845 601 5075 or following us on www.twitter.com/statisticsONS.

We are actively encouraging people to talk about what matters to them, for groups to run their own discussions and polls and then feed responses into us in order to collate. The more responses we get and the more people talk about what matters to them the more realistic a picture of the UK we will have.

If you would like further information, please contact Alex Cooke at alex.cooke@ons.gsi.gov.uk or on 01633 456356.