The examined life

By Economist.com

The OECD's latest measure of well-being

SIZING up countries by GDP has long been criticised for placing too much emphasis on things that are measured monetarily. Over the past three years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has released an alternative called the "Better-Life Index". It tracks around 24 indicators in 11 categories. Some are easily quantifiable, like jobs (which includes unemployment and income), while others are more woolly, like civic engagement and community. Ever diplomatic, the OECD does not provide a score for countries, though you can see their rankings here. The Economist has crunched the numbers for 10 indicators for which the OECD provide data to place countries in a range of how the best off and least well-off in society fare, measured as the top and bottom 10% of the population by income and education. It conforms to stereotype. The better-off Americans enjoy the best lives, but the country has the widest inequality. In fact, for all the fancy metrics, the Better-Life Index does not look too different from classic GDP rankings.