11.3.3—Living standards/development indicators

Living standards refer to people’s material and non-material well-being. Useful indicators include real income per person, health, education, housing, employment, inequality, access to services and environmental quality.

Composite indices can summarise several dimensions, while disaggregated data reveal who is excluded. Every indicator has a definition, measurement error and blind spots.

Real GDP per person may rise while air pollution worsens and regional inequality widens; life expectancy, schooling and distribution data change the interpretation.

No single indicator “measures living standards” completely, and a higher index score does not show that every component improved.