Social indicators and the measurement of living conditions

The article discusses in some detail what is meant by living conditions and how we measure them. The resource approach based on a statistical mapping of objective measures, which has been central to the Nordic welfare research, is emphasized. However, living conditions are not only the results of the resources of each individual but of the mechanisms which are effective in the different areas where the available resources are put to use. Access to resources and access to arenas are thus the conceptual framework for extending the set of statistics. The article ends by a presentation of examples of social indicators. The measurement of income distribution is used as the main example to illustrate the relationship between economic and social statistics, and to stress the importance of the macro-micro link and some of the conceptual problems involved when establishing an operational measure.