Britain to establish National Happiness Index

Britain to establish National Happiness Index
Monday 25 October 2010

Britain could soon become one of the first countries to measure the level of its population's wellbeing. David Cameron, the Conservative Prime Minister wants to make the results central to his policy making agenda.

Similar plans are also being investigated by France and Canada.

Cameron has long been pre-occupied with the issue of happiness. In 2006 he described the need to measure people's well being as "one of the central political issues of our time".

The British government is asking statistician Jil Matheson to come up with questions which can be asked on a regular basis, giving a measure of prosperity that isn't based in pure economics. Two Nobel Prize winning economists, Joesph Stiglitz and Amyartya Sen wrote a report in 2009 suggesting that countries move away from the purely economic concept of GDP, which just measures economic activity, to measures of well being and sustainability which also takes into account the intrinsic value and importance of a country's natural environment.

Britain is currently facing large cuts in public spending, but the potential effects of these have apparently not deterred Cameron from his goal to measure happiness. An advisor said that "even in tough times it's just as relevant an agenda".

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