What do citizens want? Well-being measurement and its importance for European social policy-making

The way researchers have defined and measured social progress has been shifting beyond using GDP growth towards emphasising citizens’ quality of life. However, how much information can EU policy-makers gather from the available research to make choices that would maximise EU citizens’ satisfaction in life and what else do they need to know? This paper reviews the research on well-being measurement, identifies areas where it provides directions for policy-makers, and suggests ways of improving the measurement of well-being so it can provide a better indication of what citizens want.