3.
MEASURING SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING
relatively comprehensive approach to measuring subjective well-being is likely to be more on the scale of a module that could be added to existing surveys rather than requiring a whole survey questionnaire in itself. A key question to consider then is which survey vehicles are most appropriate to the task of measuring subjective well-being. It is impossible to provide definitive guidance on this issue, because the range of household surveys collected – even among national statistical agencies – varies significantly from country to country. However, it is possible to identify the roles that different survey vehicles can play in collecting subjective well-being data. Seven classes of survey vehicle are relevant to subjective well-being and meet slightly different needs. These are: ●
Integrated household surveys.
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General social surveys.
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Time-use surveys.
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Victimisation surveys.
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Health surveys.
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Special topic surveys.
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Panel surveys.
Integrated household surveys Integrated household surveys include the primary surveys used by national statistical agencies to collect information on issues such as income, expenditure and labour market status. In some countries information such as this is collected through separate surveys, such as a labour force survey, while other countries, such as the United Kingdom, rely on an integrated household survey with sub-samples focused on particular topics. Another similar example is the EU-SILC, which consists of a core survey focused on income and living conditions alongside a range of special topic modules. The 2013 EU-SILC module is focused explicitly on well-being. Such surveys are generally not appropriate to be the sole source of information on subjective well-being, as they have a clearly-defined focus that may not align well with an extensive module of subjective well-being and space in these surveys is at a premium. However, such surveys may be more appropriate as a vehicle for a limited set of core questions or a primary measure of subjective well-being intended for monitoring purposes. These questions take up relatively little space in a survey and demand both large sample sizes and regular collection in order to support the effective monitoring of outcomes. Further, subjective measures of this sort complement the economic focus of many integrated household surveys by capturing information on the impact of non-economic factors in a relatively compact form.
General social surveys Not all national statistical agencies run general social surveys, and among those that do, the content and focus vary considerably. Some national statistical agencies, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, focus their general social survey primarily on measures of social capital and social inclusion, while others rotate modules on different topics between survey waves (Statistics Canada) or are explicitly multi-dimensional (Statistics New Zealand). The latter two approaches are particularly appropriate vehicles for collecting information on subjective well-being (and indeed, both Statistics Canada and Statistics
OECD GUIDELINES ON MEASURING SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING © OECD 2013
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