This is the fifth edition of Society at a Glance, the biennial OECD compendium of social indicators. This report attempts to satisfy the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends. It updates some of the indicators included in the 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 editions. It adds some new ones, including indicators of height, perceived health status, risky youth behaviour and bullying. In addition, a new set of headline social indicators are developed, providing an overview of social well-being and its trends. This report also includes a guide to help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators, and a special chapter on leisure time across the OECD. More detailed information on all indicators, including those not in this edition, can be found on the OECD web pages (www.oecd.org/els/social/indicators/SAG).

This report was prepared by Simon Chapple and Maxime Ladaique. As this report addresses a wide range of topics, it would have been impossible to complete without the contributions of many people in and outside the OECD Social Policy Division. These include Francesca Colombo, Michael De Looper, Marco Mira d'Ercole, Justina Fischer, Michael Förster, Pauline Fron, Rie Fujisawa, David Jonathan Gonzalez-Villascan, Ingrid Herrbach, Maria del Carmen Huerta, Herwig Immervoll, Gaetan Lafortune, Pascal Marianna, Marlène Mohier, Dominique Paturot, Dominic Richardson, and Olivier Thévenon. Mark Pearson, Head of the OECD Social Policy Division, originally developed and has subsequently supervised the reports.

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