Worldwide Indicators for Quality of Life: the Ten Leading Countries in the View of the Peoples and the Measurements of Experts around 2020

Volume 7, Issue 5, October 2023     |     PP. 368-383      |     PDF (695 K)    |     Pub. Date: October 7, 2023
DOI: 10.54647/sociology841102    70 Downloads     88586 Views  

Author(s)

Wolfgang Glatzer, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Abstract
Quality of life has been measured in recent times in most countries of the world. In earlier times the GDP was the professional measure to describe the economic success of a nation. This measurement of economic performance is now not accepted as a sufficient measure for wellbeing and quality of life. Meanwhile there are alternatives available like the Human Development Index (UN), the Better Life Index (OECD),and the Weighted Index of Social Progress (WISP). Above the subjective measurement of wellbeing and quality of life were introduced in many countries worldwide. The various indicators for quality of life show huge inequalities between the countries in the world. Among the ten leading countries in the world the North and the Middle of Europe were most often at the top.of the newrecently established indicators. People were despite their relative satisfation ratings also reporting significant amounts of hardship and misery in areas like peronal health, standard of living and unemployment. Around 2020 the countries were confronted with new worldwide challenges; the Covid 19-pandemie came over the world, the Russion-Ukrainian war was taking place, the climate change grew to a threat of living conditions and sexual harrasment received perception as a serious topic. The countries were different succesful in the fight against these challenges. Nevertheless the inequality between high and low statisfaction with quality of life in Europe and abroad remained rather stable.
People and experts use different measures about the state of quality of life and the countries meet different decisions about their development paths. North and middle European countries are worldwide leading in the creation of good societies according to the actuel indicators of quality of life and a challenge to improve the levels of living in the less developed countries.

Keywords
Quality of Life, Human Development Index, Better Life Index, Weigthed Index of Social Progress, Perceived Quality of Life, Happiness

Cite this paper
Wolfgang Glatzer, Worldwide Indicators for Quality of Life: the Ten Leading Countries in the View of the Peoples and the Measurements of Experts around 2020 , SCIREA Journal of Sociology. Volume 7, Issue 5, October 2023 | PP. 368-383. 10.54647/sociology841102

References

[ 1 ] Andersson, Ronald E. (Ed.) (2015) World Suffering and Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series 56, Springer Science, Dordrecht
[ 2 ] Alkire, Sabina (2021) The Capability–Approach to the Quality of Life. file:///C:/Users/Wolfgang/AppData/Local/Temp/capability_approach.pdf
[ 3 ] Basler Versicherungsgruppe (ed) (1978). Interview mit der Menschheit (Human Needs and Satisfactions), Basel.
[ 4 ] Bradburn, Norman M. (1969): The Structure of Psychological Well-Being. Chicago: Aldine.CDF
[ 5 ] Cantril, Hadley (1965). The Pattern of Human Concerns. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick/New Jersey.
[ 6 ] Cummins, Robert A. (2000) Objective and Subjective Quality of Life: an Interactive Model. Social Indicators Research 52, 55–72 https://doi.org/10.1023/ A:1007027822521
[ 7 ] Diener, E., Suh, E.M. (1999). National differences in Subjective Well-being. In: Kahneman, D. Diener, E. Schwarz, (Eds.) Well-being: The foundations of Hedonic Psychology. Russel Sage foundation, New York.
[ 8 ] Estes, R. J. (1984): The Social Progress of Nations. Praeger, New York et al.
[ 9 ] Estes, R. J. (2019). The Social Progress of Nations Revisited 1970 -2020. 50 Years of Development Challenges and Accomplishments
[ 10 ] Glatzer, Wolfgang; Camfield, Laura; Moller Valerie; Rojas. Mariano (ed.) 2015: Global Handbook of Quality of Life. Springer
[ 11 ] Glatzer, W. (2012). Cross-National Comparisons of Quality of Life in Developed Nations, Including the Impact of Globalization. In: Land, Kenneth. Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research. Springer.
[ 12 ] Human Development Report Index Trends, 1990 – 2019 (2020) Human Development Report
[ 13 ] Helliwell, John F./Layard, Richard/Sachs, Jeffry D. (2019) World Happiness Report 2019.
[ 14 ] Helliwell, John F./Layard Richard/Sachs, Jeffry/De Neve Jan Emmanuels (2021) World Happiness Report 2021. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, New York
[ 15 ] Helliwell, J, Layard, R., Sachs, J. (2012): World Happiness Report. http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/Sachs%20Writing/2012/World%20Happiness%20Report.pdf, 01.02.2013
[ 16 ] Moller, Valerie; Huschka, Denis; Michalos Alex C. (2008): Barometers of Quality of Life. Springer
[ 17 ] OECD Better Life Index, http://wikipedia.org/wiki/OECD-Better-Life-Index
[ 18 ] OECD (2011) How`s life? - Measuring Well-Being. OECD-publishing
[ 19 ] OECD (2020a) How`s life? - Measuring Well-Being 5th edition, OECD-Publishing
[ 20 ] OECD (2014) How was Life? - Global Well-Being since 1820. OECD-Publishing
[ 21 ] OECD (2019) Society at a glance 2019 – OECD social indicators. OECD-Publishing
[ 22 ] OECD (2020b) How was Life? - ‘Global Well-Being since 1820. Volume II: New Perspectives on OECD-Publishing
[ 23 ] Ostasiewicz, Walenty (2006) Towards Quality of Life Improvement. Publishing house of the Wroclaw University of Economics, Wroclaw
[ 24 ] Development Reports. From hdr.undp.org/en/composite/trends United Nations (2021) United Nations Development Programme. Human
[ 25 ] UNDP (1990). Human Development Report 1990: Concept and Measurement of Human Development. New York. http://www.hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1990
[ 26 ] Veenhofen, Ruut (2003) Satisfaction and hardship.
[ 27 ] Veenhoven, Ruut (2000) The four qualities of life. Ordering concepts and measures of the good life. Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum onSubjective Well-Being, 1(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1023 /A:1010072010360
[ 28 ] Veenhoven, Ruut (2005): worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur,nl.
[ 29 ] The World Bank nationalacounts data 1960 2020
[ 30 ] World Happiness Index 2022 Country Wise Rank & Report from https://dmerharyana.org/world-happiness-inderx/World-Happiness
[ 31 ] Wikipedia (2021) Quality of Life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life
[ 32 ] World Bank 2020-List of Countries by GDP (nominal) per capita
[ 33 ] International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook (April-2021) World
[ 34 ] Zapf, Wolfgang (1972): Zur Messung der Lebensqualität. In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 1/1972, p. 353 – 367