The OECD Better Life Index is an index that attempts to evaluate the well-being in OECD countries. First published on 24 May 2011, it includes 11 "topics" of well-being: Housing, Income, Jobs, Community, Education, Environment, Governance, Health, Life, Satisfaction, Safety, Work-life balance. OECD is accepting advices from users about new topics to add to the Index.
Each topic is built on one to three specific indicators. In the case of the Work-Life Balance, for example, three separate measures are considered: the number of employees working long hours; the percentage of working mothers; and the time people devote to leisure and personal activities. In the future, new indicators (describing sustainability of well-being over time) will be added.
The index received various critics, including the facts that it only measures the well-being of individuals, not of the society as a whole. As such it does not show inequalities in a society.[1]