Quality of Life in. Danish Municipalities

Transcription

1 INTERACTION WITH USERS SESSION C Quality of Life in Danish Municipalities Inez Lindemann Knudsen Statistics Denmark

2 Quality of Life in Danish Municipalities Inez Lindemann Knudsen 1 1. The Danish Quality of Life project Inspired by the Stiglitz Commission, the OECD, Eurostat etc. Statistics Denmark has developed a set of Danish quality of life indicators. Focus is at the local level making it possible to compare subjective and objective well-being across municipalities as well as between subgroups. This is important, because social progress not only depends on the average conditions in a country, but also on the inequalities in people s conditions (Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi 2009). Well-being indicators make it possible to assess whether progress is shared across population groups. In Denmark many decisions influencing people s daily lives and their well-being are taken by the local governments, e.g. decisions about local schools, care of children and elderly people, cultural and sport facilities. Measurement at the local level emphasizes people s experiences, which can provide information to policy makers on which policy areas need improvements (OECD 2014). There is a growing demand for statistics both from citizens who want to be informed about the society and from policy makers who use the information in designing and assessing policies. The reality showed by the standard socio economic measures are not always identical with the reality perceived by individuals, and a need for shifting the emphasis from measuring economic production (GDP) to measuring people s well-being has been identified by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi 2009). The commission recommends national statistical agencies to measure both subjective and objective well-being on a number of different dimensions, e.g. health, education and social relationships. 1.1 Subjective and objective well-being Subjective well-being refers to people s personal experiences including both life satisfaction, a sense of meaning in life and emotional states such as feeling happy or depressed (OECD 2013). Statistics Denmark has also included questions about people s perceived economic situation, self-assessed health, feeling of safety etc. in its subjective quality of life indicators. A survey covering all of these aspects has 1 Statistics Denmark, Head of Section, Copenhagen, Denmark, ink@dst.dk

3 been conducted by Statistics Denmark in the fall 2015/winter 2016 with more than 40,000 respondents. Quality of life also depends on people s objective conditions and capabilities. The resources available to people are the foundation of their autonomy and influence the extent to which they can direct their lives according to their own values and wishes (SOU 2015; Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi 2009). Statistics Denmark is using register data to create a number of indicators of objective well-being, e.g. life expectancy rates, employment rates and median disposable income. 2. Cooperation with stakeholders Statistics Denmark has register data for the whole country, but making a survey covering all of the 98 municipalities with enough statistical certainty to make comparisons across subgroups is expensive. In 2015 Statistics Denmark was granted financial support from the private foundation TrygFonden and decided to carry out the project with a survey in 20 municipalities 4 in each region. In its effort to learn from others experiences in the quality of life field Statistics Denmark established a partnership with the Region of Southern Denmark (RSD). The RSD had for some years been measuring quality of life in the municipalities of the region in cooperation with the OECD and were willing to share its experiences. It soon became clear that the RSD was interested in including all of its 22 municipalities in the new project and it was agreed that the region should pay for the survey in the remaining 18 municipalities increasing the 2015-survey from 20 to 38 municipalities. Figure 1. The municipalities covered by the survey.

4 Statistics Denmark is in contact with the interest groups of Danish municipalities (KL) and Danish Regions (Danske Regioner) to try to make a deal where the municipalities in the future each will be paying their own data collection. The hope is that Statistics Denmark can find funding to make quality of life statistics on a regular basis many years to come. 2.1 National advisory board Statistics on quality of life will be of interest to the public as well as ngo s, politicians and researchers. To involve these different stakeholders in our project we have appointed a national advisory board, which is invited to discuss issues of the project with us. The board consists of social scientists from Danish universities and research centres, ngo representatives, a mayor from one of the selected municipalities, TrygFonden s research director and a chief analyst from RSD. The first meeting in August 2015 revolved around designing the survey questionnaire. The board members were presented with a draft and had a lot of useful comments that was taken into account in the working process. Subsequently, the questionnaire was pilot tested before it was carried out from October 2015 to February The theme of the second meeting in November 2015 was the objective indicators (register data) and how to communicate the results in a way that are useful to the users. A draft paper with descriptions and argumentations for a selection of objective indicators were discussed. The comments were used as guidelines and resulted in some indicators being dropped and some new ones being selected. The board members have a broad knowledge about the quality of life research field as well as insight into the interests of different users. The third meeting took place in May By that time, the project was at such an advanced stage that there was little room for actual guidance, but the board members were interested to know more about how they can use the data in the future. Besides that, they are ambassadors for the project, who can help us spread the word. 3. Communication of results The dissemination of results are planned to take place in the fall To reach a broad audience the dissemination will use different platforms: An interactive infographic StatBank Denmark Local dissemination events

5 A publication with results Analytical research papers Report with documentation of methodology Micro level data made available for researchers 3.1 Interactive infographic The target group for the interactive infographic is the general public. The purpose is to visualize data and thereby reach a broader audience than traditional statistics normally do. The infographic is inspired by a similar feature made by Eurostat (2015). It will show a selection of 18 indicators covering 9 dimensions. Here the user can find her own municipality and compare it to the other municipalities as well as to a total for Denmark. The web design is responsive so that it can be used on any type of screen including tablets and smartphones. It will also be possible for the media to embed the infographic on their web sides. The dimensions and indicators shown in the infographic are: 1. Life satisfaction 2. Health 3. Safety Life satisfaction these days Expected life satisfaction in 5 years Self-rated health Life expectancy (years) Feeling of safety in your local area after dark Reported crimes of violence (per 1,000 inhabitants) 4. Education 5. Work Confidence that one can get a (new) job that fits ones education Education qualifying for the labour market, year-olds (per cent) Job satisfaction Employment rate, year-olds (per cent) 6. Financial situation Satisfaction with financial situation Personal disposable income (median DKK/year) 7. Social relations Satisfaction with family life Divorces (per 1,000 married) 8. Housing Satisfaction with housing situation Square meters dwelling area (per person) 9. Governance Trust in local politicians Electoral participation at the last municipal election (per cent)

6 Figure 2. Example of Statistics Denmark s interactive Quality of Life-infographic. 3.2 StatBank Denmark For some people the infographic will be enough and for others it will just be an appetizer. The last group can go on to the StatBank Denmark a part of Statistics Denmark s website where you can customize tables. Here 15 objective as well as 38 subjective indicators can be found. The objective indicators can be tabulated on 98 municipalities and across time back to Additionally some of the objective indicators can be divided on gender and age groups. The subjective indicators are answers to the survey questions shown as proportions and average scores. They can be tabulated on the 38 participating municipalities (and a total for Denmark), gender and age groups.

7 Figure 3. Example of objective indicators in StatBank Denmark. Figure 4. Example of subjective indicators in StatBank Denmark. 3.3 Local dissemination events The Danish Quality of Life statistics will be launched on 15th September On this day Statistics Denmark is going to present the results and guide the audience through the interactive infographic at 5 local events simultaneously one event in each region. The events will take place at high schools where there are the required facilities to make presentations for a large group of local stakeholders. Politicians, ngo s as well as local media will be invited. A group of high school students will also participate in the event and get their hands on the infographic and the StatBank to get a closer look at the quality of life indicators.

8 3.4 Micro level data The survey sample is drawn from the Danish population register (CPR) where everyone who lives in Denmark is registered with a personal identification number. With this number as the key the survey data can be linked to all of the registers in Statistics Denmark (individual level data). The combination of the well-being survey and the many register data form a unique data material with countless analytical possibilities. Statistics Denmark will make some analyses and a publication with the main results, but to get the optimal utilization of this storehouse of information it is important that researchers get access to the survey data and the opportunity to combine it with register data of their interest. This is possible through Statistics Denmark s Division of Research Services where Danish research environments can be granted authorisation and get access to anonymised micro level data from the 1st January References Eurostat (2015). Interactive Quality of Life-infographic: OECD (2013). OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being. OECD Publishing. OECD (2014). How s Life in Your Region?: Measuring Regional and Local Well-being for Policy Making. OECD Publishing. SOU (2015). Får vi det bättre? Om mått på livskvalitet: Betänkande av Utredningen om mått på livskvalitet. Stockholm: Statens Offentliga Utredningar. Stiglitz, J., A. Sen and J. Fitoussi (2009). Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.