HAPPINESS INDEX:A NEW "national welfare index" to be created by the Central Statistics Office is to monitor the sense of wellbeing in the State.
In his Budget introduction, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the new index would allow the public “assess the progress being made across a range of indicators”.
The announcement follows a similar move in the UK. In 2008, French president Nicolas Sarkozy asked leading economists to look at new ways of measuring economic progress, taking into account social wellbeing. He has since pledged to implement their report.
Mr Lenihan said Ireland needed to ensure its economic growth was built on foundations that were socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
He said the Central Statistics Office was working on the development of the new national welfare index. “Our attractiveness as a country in which to live is an important part of our overall competitiveness,” he said.
Since 1990, the United Nations has been calculating a human development index which ranks countries’ performance in such terms as life expectancy, per capita income, and education.