Economy

OECD launches on-line tool to measure life quality

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-25 13:05
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PARIS -- By setting the importance of 11 dimensions of life in order according to your personal preference, you can compare the well-being level across 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This is an on-line tool launched by the OECD on Tuesday. It allows ordinary citizens to measure and compare their lives without looking at the numbers of gross domestic product (GDP), but it is expected to be an important supplement to GDP index.

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Called "Your Better Life Index," it is based on 11 dimensions -- housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance. The first three represent material living conditions, while the remaining are designed to mirror the quality of life.

By deciding the priority of these given indicators, the user of the tool can control the bloom and growth of 34 flowers, each of which represent one country with 11 colorful petals standing for the 11 indicators.

"It's interesting ... this is a very very important tool, you can play with it, but it's not a game," OECD Secretary-General Angela Gurria said during a briefing introducing the index.

Looking beyond traditional GDP index to judge a government's achievement is one vital aim of the index. "There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics," the organization said on its website.

Gurria said the OECD has spent nearly 10 years on this initiative, which combined the effort of a French expert committee chaired by US economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The OECD said more indicators concerning sustainability will be added and more countries, even non-OECD members will be covered, notably six partner countries: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa.

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