Data to Measure UK Wellbeing

Open Data Institute Podcasts

How better data ecosystems can help the UK understand national wellbeing. As part of the ODI's Data Ecosystems & Innovation programme, we have been looking at data to measure the recovery in the UK. We often see headlines in the news about how GDP is down, or inflation is up, or CO2 emissions are rising. But how are these numbers created? Where does the data come from? What are the ecosystems, or the flows of data, that make these measurements possible? More importantly, how can we improve this data for better decision making? We first looked at the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and how it uses data from alternative sources to get a more real-time view of the economy. Next, we analysed some of the data to measure net zero. Particularly greenhouse gas emissions data from the ONS and the database on potential CO2 storage sites from the British Geological Survey. In our final part of this work, we look at data to measure wellbeing in the UK. Measuring wellbeing is a topic with a real breadth of research behind it and drives policymaking in a number of countries. There have been quite a number of indexes to measure wellbeing. These include the Human Development Index, the Genuine Progress Indicator, the Better Life Index, and the ONS's National Wellbeing Dashboard. To help us gain a better understanding of this topic, we spoke to two experts on wellbeing in the UK: Jennifer Wallace, Director at the Carnegie UK Trust, and Nancy Hey, Executive Director at the What Works Centre for Wellbeing. LINKS Jennifer Wallace, Director at Carnegie UK: - Carnegie UK: https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/ - Carnegie's 'Gross Domestic Wellbeing' report: https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/gross-domestic-wellbeing-gdwe-an-alternative-measure-of-social-progress/ - Jennifer's book 'Wellbeing and Devolution': https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-02230-3 - Jennifer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jen_CarnegieUK Nancy Hey, Executive Director at What Works Centre for Wellbeing: - What Works Wellbeing: https://whatworkswellbeing.org/ - Nancy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/work_life_you Wellbeing reports – Office of National Statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing ODI’s work on data to measure the economy and net zero: - Real-time data to measure the economy: insights from the ONS: https://theodi.org/article/real-time-data-to-measure-the-economy-insights-from-the-ons/ - Build Back Better: the data behind UK’s net zero transition: https://theodi.org/article/build-back-better-the-data-behind-uks-net-zero-transition/ - Analysis on the data to measure the UK's net zero goals: https://github.com/theodi/data-ecosystems-net-zero/blob/main/UKNetZero.ipynb Some other indexes of social progress: - Human Development Index: https://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi - Better Life Index: https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ - Thriving Places Index: https://www.centreforthrivingplaces.org/ - Happy Planet Index: https://happyplanetindex.org/ - Community Needs Index: https://ocsi.uk/2019/10/21/community-needs-index-measuring-social-and-cultural-factors/ - Genuine Progress Indicator: https://sustainable-economy.org/genuine-progress/