Stockholm Wellbeing IndexAbout the index
Wellbeing growth in Stockholm
The Wellbeing Index tracks how people across the Stockholm region are doing, quarter by quarter.
Wellbeing growth
The Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness, together with Region Stockholm, Stockholm Business Region and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, has launched the objective of making Stockholm a region of wellbeing growth.
The wellbeing growth objective is intended to function in a similar way as economic growth: as a fundamental, direct, and measurable goal considered in economics and politics.
Wellbeing growth means that wellbeing increases over time and that people’s quality of life and overall state of being improve. The idea that all people should feel better is an end in itself, emphasized in an increasing number of international and national directives worldwide, including UN Resolution 65/309, Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development.
We also expect wellbeing growth to contribute to a stronger economy through lower societal costs, such as reduced need for health care and social services, decreased work and school absence, less crime, and fewer democratic losses, while generating higher revenues through productivity, innovation, entrepreneurship, employment, and improved societal and democratic functionality.
We further expect wellbeing growth to create a more favorable environment for businesses and international collaborations, and to make the region more attractive to live in and visit.
The Wellbeing Index
For wellbeing growth to be set as a target similar to economic growth, measured through GDP, a metric is needed that is simple to construct and use, and easy to interpret and track over time.
We call this metric the Wellbeing Index. It consists of four questions measuring overall quality of life (Good life) and three dimensions of wellbeing: Happiness, Meaning, and Life richness. The four questions are combined into an average score from 1 (lowest possible wellbeing) to 10 (highest possible wellbeing).
We calculate the Wellbeing Index quarterly. Each quarter, approximately 1,000 randomly selected people in the Stockholm region are surveyed, using the same approach to wellbeing measurement as the UN’s World Happiness Report.