Society at a Glance 2016
OECD Social Indicators
This is the eighth edition of Society at a Glance, the biennial OECD overview of social indicators. This report addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends. It updates some indicators included in the previous editions published since 2001 and introduces several new ones, with 25 indicators in total. It includes data for the 35 OECD member countries and where available data for key partners (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa); other G20 countries (Argentina and Saudi Arabia) are also included. The report features a special chapter on the NEET challenge and what can be done for jobless and disengaged youth. It also provides a guide to help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators. All indicators are available as a web book and an e-book on OECD iLibrary.
Perceived health status
In almost all OECD countries, a majority of the adult population reports their health as good or better than good (). Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States are the four leading countries, with almost nine out of ten people reporting to be in good health. However, the response categories offered to survey respondents in these three countries are different from those used in European countries and Asian OECD countries: they offer one more option on the positive side of the scale (excellent) and one less option on the negative side (very poor). This introduces an upward bias in the results. On the other hand, less than half of the adults in Japan, Korea and Portugal rate their health as good or very good. The proportion is also relatively low in Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Poland, where less than 60% of adults consider themselves to be in good health. Such differences in self-assessed health status could in part stem from cultural biases.
Also available in: French