How's Life?

I've blogged before about various attempts at measuring well-being, happiness and quality of life around the world. Sweden and Scandinavia always rank highly in these measurements.

The OECD has published a fascinating new web tool allowing a broad view of well-being in many different regions of the world. A few clicks allows a look at how where you live compares and contrasts with other parts of the world.

Stockholm comes across pretty well, except for the shortage and expense of housing, which I've written about recently. My home state of Minnesota looks darned good in the ratings, I'm happy to say; Texas, a bit less so. The website is a marvel of data visualization, and is an informative way to spend time on the internet!

These measurements are imperfect, of course. Measuring civic engagement only through voter turnout, just as one example, leaves out many things that make up a community.

The New York Times published a superb article summarizing the OECD's work and its usefulness in making comparisons around the world. I highly recommend having a read!