Life Quality
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Life
Quality - Kids’ well-being
in different
Countries of the World
By Pierre André THIBAULT, in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004, 2005,
with Copyrights for the copied,
printed, or reproduced
texts, articles,
images, icons, pictures, maps, photos, videos,
URL
internet addresses, and links,
as mentioned below.
After
2007, most PAT stuff is Copyright © free if for
non-commercial or political purpose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Quality_in_the_Municipality_of_H%F6gsby
Life Quality in the Municipality of Hoegsby,
Sweden, on Wikipedia
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=quality+of+life
The WISP list
The WISP , the Weighted
Index of Social Progress,
as established by Professor
Dr. Richard J. Estes, his co-workers and students
at the School of Social Work,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA,
during many years until about 2003, has been much
discussed and the object
of much controversy, of course, but remains, among all
the attempts by many
different schools in many different countries,
probably the most complete and
balanced one, according to the greatest number of
experts in that field, worldwide.
See part of the study and controversy at:
http://www.isp.msu.edu/cers/CIR%20papers/Estes.htm
http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=2101
http://humandevelopment.bu.edu/use_exsisting_index/show_aggregate.cfm?index_id=222&data_type=1
http://isis.csuhayward.edu/alss/geography/mlee/geog2400/2400Estes.htm
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/ra/cwb2_e.html
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article642788.ece?service=print
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article642788.ece
http://www.abelard.org/briefings/quality_of_life.htm
http://www.europaportalen.nu/statistik/wisp-bnp.html
http://www.angelfire.com/space/special4u/lifequality.html
Formerly the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, Penn SP2 offers
graduate
programs
in Social Work, Social Welfare, Social Policy and Nonprofit…
www.sp2.upenn.edu - 33k - Cached - Similar
pages
Much about
the WISP list
In AftenPosten, Oslo, Norway
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article642788.ece
Saturday July 17 2004. First
published 8 Oct 2003.
By Jonathan Thisdall, Aftenposten,
English Web Desk.
Sweden and Denmark top in quality of life.
Norway has been the proud winner of surveys studying and
comparing the
quality of life around the world, but now has been left behind by its
Scandinavian neighbours, largely due to a relative lack of social
equality.
The good news is that Norway
was a close third, newspaper Dagsavisen reports.
"Norway
has always been among the top five countries. There is very little difference
between
the top countries, and one should remember that when you are on top
of
the list, there is only one direction to go," Professor Richard Estes at
the
University
of Pennsylvania told Dagsavisen.
Estes
is the man behind the international index WISP which measures the
quality
of life in 163 nations using 40 different social indicators.
The WISP study for
the 1990s has just been published, with Sweden and
Denmark
sharing first place, just ahead of Norway - a sweeping 'victory' for the
Scandinavian
way of life, with Nordic neighbours Finland and the central
European
nations following after.
The USA,
which has a higher GNP
(Gross National Product), ended up in 27th
place,
after all existing European Union nations and several EU applicants.
Afghanistan
and nine African nations came bottom of the study.
"A
country can have a high
GNP but at the same time an unjust
distribution of
resources and much poverty. The USA is
an example of this. Despite a high
GNP
a country can have large segments of its population lacking satisfactory
health care, education, and housing
or food," Estes said.
"WISP
measures human quality
of life and well-being.
GNP examines only economic factors.
Even
economists dislike it when countries are ranked according to GNP.
WISP
takes other factors into account, such as lifespan,
general health levels,
working conditions, access to nature, quality
leisure time, democracy and
political participation," Estes
said. Norway's decline from top
positions
is due to its neighbour’s better emphasis on equality
of status.
9th of October
2003.
"The WISP study for the 1990s has just been
published, with Sweden and
Denmark sharing first place,
just ahead of Norway - a sweeping victory for the
Scandinavian way of life,
with Nordic neighbours Finland and the central
European nations following
after, measures the quality of life in 163 nations
using 40 different social
indicators. Apparently Swedes and Danes are the
content people on earth about
their quality of life. This is just a short article
noting that USA ends up on 27th
place and Afghanistan and nine African
nations came bottom of the
study.”
The final “WISP List”,
by Professor
Dr. Richard J. Estes, at Yahoo,
at Google,
his collaborators and
students, at the
School of Social Work,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA:
There
are 1, 2, or more countries on a same final ranking, with just a little
difference
of total final points, but different scores on other important ranking
criteria,
giving them altogether these positions on the list :
1 Denmark 107 points at Special4u in
English and at Wiki in many
languages
1 Sweden 107 points at Wiki in many languages
3 Norway 104 points at Wiki in many languages
5 Finland 101 points at Wiki in many languages … etc…
5 Luxembourg 100
5 Germany 100
5 Austria 100
8 Iceland 98
8 Italy 98
10 Belgium 97
11 UK 96
11 Spain 96
13 Netherlands 95
14 France 94
14 Ireland 94
16 Switzerland 93
16 New Zealand 93
18 Japan 91
18 Hungary 91
20 Portugal 90
20 Greece 90
22 Australia 89
22 Bulgaria 89
24
Czech Rep 88
25
Slovak Rep 87
26
Canada 86
27
Slovenia 85
27 USA 85
27
Poland 85
34
Romania 77
34
Latvia 77
37
Yugoslavia 76
38
Chile 75
39
Lithunia 74
40
Israel 72
41 South Korea 71
41 Ukraine 71
43 Croatia 70
43 Cyprus 70
45 Argentina 69
46 Costa Rica 68
47 Russia 67
47 Moldova 67
49 Cuba 65
49 Armenia 65
49 Albania 65
52 Singapore 64
53 Macedonia 63
53 Georgia 63
55 Panama 62
56 Kyrgyz Rep 61
58 Mexico 60
58 Ecuador 60
58 Azerbaijan 60
61 Dominican Rep 59
61 Jamaica 59
61 Venezuela 59
61 Kazakhstan 59
70 Guyana 55
71 Thailand 54
71 Turkmenistan 54
73 Brazil 53
73 Sri Lanka 53
73 Colombia 53
73 El Salvador 53
73 Peru 53
78 South Africa 52
78 Uzbekistan 52
78 Lebanon 52
81 Paraguay 51
82 Tajikistan 50
82 Kuwait 50
84 Philippines 49
84 Viet Nam 49
84 Malaysia 49
84 Suriname 49
88 Egypt 48
88 Turkey 48
90 Lybia 46
90 Iran 46
92 Indonesia 45
93 Barhain 44
93 Botswana 44
115 Oman 29
116 Iraq 28
116 Cambodia 28
116 Gabon 28
119 Ghana 26
120 Zimbabwe 24
121 Pakistan 23
121 Haiti 23
123 Congo Rep 22
134 Togo 14
137 Bhutan 13
137 Mali 13
137 Sudan 13
137 Afghanistan 13
137 Gambia 13
141 Mauretania 12
141 Kenya 12
141 Djibouti 12
141 Cote d’ Ivoire 12
141
Malawi 9
146
Yemen 8
147
Uganda 7
148
Ginea Bissau 5
International Quality of Life Index.
From: http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=838
There have been several
attempts at this - Richard Estes' Index of Social
Progress being probably the most advanced.
But most attempts to date have
been biased towards economic
rather than ecological considerations, and have
omitted people's own assessments of their well-being.
Besides those aims outlined
above (click on link above), the aims of this work
are: to encourage people to
consider and evaluate factors making for overall
quality of life; to encourage
leaders and others to take into account the effects
of their actions on quality
of life; to encourage the creation of human scale
societies and aspiration
towards non-material values; and to publicise the best
work in this field.
Some more Links related with Quality of Life:
Copenhagen Consensus at Wikipedia
http://www.itu.int/newsarchive/press_releases/2003/30.html
http://www.isima.fr/ecosim/qol.html
http://www.ilcusa.org/_lib/pdf/f0653-Symposium.pdf
http://www.total-design.net with a nice dragon!
http://www.isp.msu.edu/cers/CIR%20papers/Estes.htm
UNICEF children’s well-being at Google 2007
Children's
well-being in Europe and North America
The UNICEF has surveyed the well-being of children
in 21 industrialised
countries.
Here is the full ranking 2007:
1. The Netherlands 2. Sweden
in a close lead with a gap to nr 3 and 4.
Clearly nr
Sweden makes a fair score in Subjective
well-being, and a poor one
in Family & peer relationships, suggesting
beyond any statiscal doubt,
deeper psycho-social distortions, a rather
similar situation as in Finland.
Denmark shows a more even scoring in all
fields, but not in subjectivity.
Netherlands’ kids having comparatively not
so good material conditions
than Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, but the
best subjectivity in the world
giving altogether a win.
See ranking: The lesser points in dissatisfaction,
the higher position in
the comparative international ranking, at the
opposite of the Wisp list above.
3. Denmark
4. Finland
5. Spain
6. Switzerland
7. Norway
8. Italy
9. Irish Republic
10. Belgium
11. Germany
12. Canada
13. Greece
14. Poland
15. Czech Republic
16. France
17. Portugal
18. Austria
19. Hungary
20. United States of America
21. United Kingdom
These 2 last worst results, opening for
speculations about the “why?”,
suggesting a distortion based on language,
the survey being conducted
in English in anglophone countries by
non-English natives, and the answers
being too negatively extensive. Explanation
not confirmed by the results of
Canada, perhaps because of the large
French speaking minority, and because
Canada is more “positive” in an “international
subconsciousness”?
Biasing by UNICEF non-wasp survey staff
unconsciously “negativist” towards
US and UK “wasp big brothers” is also
thinkable, however difficult to grasp.
Last possibility being that it can be
just like that, by coincidence, though
improbable. Could be a flaw somewhere?
Here is the full UNICEF
report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/13_02_07_nn_unicef.pdf
Compare this international UNICEF “Kids’ well-being” list from
2007
to the american WISP list above from the 1990’s to
2003.
Global Ideas Bank Quality of Life
28
jan 2006
This chapter explores the best ways of
measuring quality of life, and publishes some of the
entries received by the Institute for
Social Inventions in response to its competition on this
theme.
The standard of living is improving, at
least in the developed countries. But the quality of
life does not necessarily improve at the
same time. Are people happier, more fulfilled, more
creative, more able to develop their
potential? Are their relationships, work and leisure as
satisfying? Do they find their
neighbourhood and environment as pleasant to live in? Is there
a supportive network of family, friends
and neighbours to help in old age or with childcare?
Social Indicators Research and other
journals have detailed the work on this theme since
the early '70s, but how would you set
about measuring quality of life, as opposed to the
standard of living?
These were the main questions posed by the
Institute's competition, which accepted entries
in any one or more of the following five
categories (and the Institute intends to continue
publicising material received in these
categories):
(1) Idiosyncratic Personal Quality of
Life Index if you had to design a questionnaire that
you could fill in once a year, to
ascertain from the resulting score to what extent your own
personal quality of life had gone up or down,
what would it consist of? The aim here is to
broaden the perspective of social
scientists who consider these issues. For instance, some
people might want to assess how close they
have been to nature, others to what extent
their spiritual needs have been met or how
much they have laughed of late - the questions
can be ones that are fitted to you alone.
(2) Individual Quality of Life Index.
As above, but the questionnaire should be applicable
to anyone - for instance, a country's
cultural differences could be allowed for by getting
respondents to indicate what importance
they attach to each question.
(3) Quality of Relationships Index.
There may be overlap here with the Individual Index,
but the only factor this would measure is
the quality of relationships with family, lovers,
neighbours, work colleagues and friends.
(4) Neighbourhood Quality of Life
Index. This could either be one where inhabitants are
asked to give their subjective
assessments, or could be based on more 'objective' exterior
assessment, or it could contain both these
elements. The neighbourhood is defined here as
any area that local people would tend to
refer to as their immediate neighbourhood, in many
areas not exceeding 1,000 inhabitants.
Again the Index should be usable anywhere in the
world. Most such Indexes to date have been
from a Western perspective. The hope here is
to draw up an Index that, if widely
adopted, might encourage the developing world to avoid
harmful imitation of the worst excesses of
the lifestyle of affluent regions. A particularly
satisfactory lifestyle in the third world
(assuming basic needs for food, shelter and security
are met) - such as that of a hill tribe in
Thailand or a village in Kashmir's Ladakh - might then
be able to score at least as high on a
Quality of Life Index as a materially richer area such as
Brixton in London or Easterhouse in
Glasgow. The Index can measure negative or positive factors
or both. Ideally it should be one that
neighbourhoods would find useful in defending or developing
their areas, and that they could even
perhaps administer for themselves.
(5) International Quality of Life
Index. There have been several attempts at this –
Richard Estes' Index of Social Progress
being probably the most advanced. But most attempts to
date have been biased towards economic
rather than ecological considerations, and have omitted
people's own assessments of their
well-being.
Besides those aims outlined above, the aims of
this work are: to encourage people to consider and
evaluate factors making for overall
quality of life; to encourage leaders and others to take into
account the effects of their actions on
quality of life; to encourage the creation of human scale
societies and aspiration towards
non-material values; and to publicise the best work in this field.
Criteria
When considering the feasibility of
proposals, the Institute bears in mind the following criteria,
where relevant:
(1) Would the Index proposed be applicable
worldwide, without an inbuilt bias towards higher
ratings for 'First World' countries?
(2) Would the Index be reducible to a
number, with a resulting league table, even if supplemented
by fuller 'small' print?
(3) Would it be largely independent of the
economic standard of living?
(4) Would it be relatively cheap and
simple to administer?
(5) Is it likely to prove credible,
useful, and feasible (politically and in terms of funding)? Can it be
implemented privately without relying on a
United Nations agency or similar?
This chapter
describes some of the ingredients said to make up this quality of life, and
some of the
attempts to
measure it that have been made to date, in the hope of inspiring readers to
create their
own versions
(and to submit them to the Institute).
For a more sophisticated design of this page,
send in your own suggestion
and contribution here.
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