Subjective Wellbeing as a Social Indicator

My essay contributes to the 50-year celebration of Bauer’s ‘Social Indicators’ by examining the progress of subjective social indicators. It begins with a description of how the three contributors to this volume, Bauer, Biderman and Gross, viewed subjective indicators, and then examines developments to the present. Of special interest is subjective wellbeing, most particularly as it is understood through the theory of subjective wellbeing homeostasis. The theory is described and the potential use of subjective wellbeing as an indicator, relevant to the development of public policy, is described. I conclude that it is timely for national statistical agencies to consider the adoption of a scale to measure subjective wellbeing.