|
There are 25 social indicators presented in Society at a Glance 2011. In Society at a Glance 2009, a summary was provided through a table which selected two indicators per chapter, chosen on the basis of their a priori importance and through consultation with member countries, and assigned "green" for performance in the top three deciles, "orange" for performance in the middle four deciles and "red" for the bottom three deciles.
A very similar "traffic lights" approach is taken below, but for all relevant indicators. Some of the 25 indicators are excluded because they cannot be unambiguously interpreted (a higher value being desirable and a lower value being undesirable). For the general context (GE) indicators, only household income is included. Additionally, the social response indicators (education, social and health spending and pensionable years) are not included as these are policy inputs, not social outcomes.
These exclusions leave 17 out of the 25 social indicators to be summarised in Table 3.1.. As before, greens are the highest seven countries, oranges are the middle 20 countries and reds are the lowest seven countries (these numbers are adjusted proportionately when there is missing indicator data for countries). Blanks are placed where no country indicator information is available.
While it provides a very useful summary snapshot of the social situation, it is necessary to make numerous caveats about meaning and interpretation of Table 3.1. in terms of national comparisons. Different governments and different countries will have different policy priorities. Their priorities may be economic outcomes (inflation, GDP, or fiscal balance, for example) rather than social outcomes such as those considered here. In such a case having red social outcomes in Table 3.1. may be the price they are willing to pay for success elsewhere. Or, given a focus on social outcomes, they may be willing to trade-off many red outcomes for the one green social outcome they deem most desirable. Alternatively there may be
other social outcomes, not considered here, which are stronger priorities at a national level. Observed patterns of reds, oranges and greens may reflect simply reflect national differences in preferences for outcomes. Equally, observed patterns may reflect lags in changes of social outcomes rather than current or recent policy settings. Lastly, the trade-offs between social outcomes may vary between countries because of societal or cultural differences, unrelated to policy choices, making it easier for some countries to generate green outcomes for a given policy effort. For all these reasons, it was deemed inappropriate to rank country performance by an aggregate social index, such as summing the numbers of green or red lights across indicators.
|
Table 3.1.
Overview of the social situation in OECD countries
"Green circles" denotes countries are in the top two deciles, "red diamonds" those in the bottom two deciles and "yellow triangle" those in the six intermediate deciles
|
| |
|
|
|
