Well-being is at the foremost position of national and international political agendas due to increased concerns of how to implement effective and sustainable policies, which implies evidence-based design and, in consequence, to properly measure societies’ progress and welfare.
In doing so, the first World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policies” took place in Palermo, Italy, in2004. Three more Forums took place: in Istanbul (Turkey) in 2007, which led to the initiative of the OECD-hosted “Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies”, in Busan (South Korea) in 2009, and in New Delhi (India) in 2012. The ultimate goal of these improvements in well-being measurement techniques is to contribute to evidence-approach policy making.
Stiglitz et al. (2009) refers to well-being as a multidimensional concept that includes several dimensions such as material living standards (income, consumption and wealth), health, education, personal activities (including work), political voice and governance, social connections and relationships, environment (present and future conditions), security (physical and economic).