96th DGINS Conference – Sofia, 30th September, 2010 1

Session III – Multidimensional measures of quality of lifeInna ŠteinbukaDirector, Social and Information Society StatisticsEurostat

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Quality of lifedimensions

Europe 2020Poverty and social inclusion

At risk of povertyMaterial deprivationLow work intensity HH

EducationEarly school leaversTertiary attainment

Labour MarketEmployment rates

Stiglitz Commission

RecommendationsMultidimensional concept of QoL

GDP & BeyondQoL & Well beingSocial indicatorsDistributions and inequalitiesTimeliness

And the pressure And the pressure from the crisisfrom the crisis

Papers have in common: Drivers

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Measuring inequalities

National and EU aggregates provide averages and hide inequalities.Micro data are essential to capture the different dimensions of inequalities at the individual level.The population at risk of poverty or exclusion as an example.

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Share of the target population across countries, 2008 (%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

EU27 CZ NL SK DK SE SIHU AT FR LU FIMT BE DE IE CY PL PT IT UK EE ES LT EL BG RO LV

AROP MD not AROP LWI not AROP

Source: EU-SILC

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Share of those at risk of poverty or exclusion in the population and share of their income, 2008 (%)

Source: EU-SILC

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

EU27 LU NL SE DK CZ FIEE DE MT ES FR AT SIBE CY IE PT SK IT EL LT UK LV BG HU PLRO

Share of the population Share of the income

25% of the population

12% of the total income

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Source: EU-SILC, France

Deprivation rate per dimension of quality of life

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SILC

SILC delivers, is rich and recognisedSILC is central both in the context of quality of life measurement and Europe 2020 poverty indicator, that will be monitored in the context of the surveillance mechanismTimeliness, coverage and comparability are still to be improved in the revision of the legal basis

SILC cannot be seen in isolation: other data sources covers important dimensions: LFS (labour market), HBS (consumption), ECB wealth survey,…Appropriate linkages between data sources are to be sought

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Timeliness

Timeliness is a serious concern: Europe 2020 poverty target has been designed on the basis of pre-crisis data!ES is able to produce some provisional SILC data one year earlier, and they are sufficiently reliableLV adapted its social statistics to produce faster resultsEurofound paper describes the fast use of the Eurobarometer to look at the crisis impact

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Indicators

A menu of objective indicators: Identification of existing objective dimensions of quality of life and aggregation of data (living conditions, economic strain, health, social networks, social participation, working conditions and education) (FR and Eurostat)Composite indicator: FR proposes a synthetic indicator of quality of lifeSubjective indicators: PL has large experience in subjective measures of well being, considered as essential elementsCombination of objective and subjective indicators in a dedicated survey: Eurofound runs an extensive survey covering many aspect of subjective and objective dimensions of quality of life

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Questions to papers and the audience

Are the ES and LV experiences in improving timeliness transposable in other MS so as to provide faster indicators at the EU level ? (LV – ES)Composite indicators: does the Stiglitz report give new impetus to rethink current reservations of official statisticians about composite indicators? (FR)Should official statistics cover subjective well being? (PL)What are the complementarities of the European foundation quality of life survey with the work carried out in the EuropeanStatistical System? (Eurofound)

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Thank you for attention