A social indicator is derived from readily available demographic data: population age structures, mortality rates, sex ratios, and children—women ratios (fertility). It is suggested that an indicator based on just two of these variables can be as reliable a measure of the physical quality of life in a population as a multivariable indicator based directly on socioeconomic data. Unlike multivariable indicators, which are expensive to collect, the demographic data are readily available. Their use as social indicators would thus offer a simple, cheap, and effective means of monitoring the standard of living in small, geographically defined populations and in evaluating the effects of policy interventions. The analysis is based on Israeli towns, with use of data from the census of 1983.
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