The OECD today launched a 3.0 version of its pioneering Better Life Index (www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org), an online, interactive tool that allows people to create their own index according to their priorities in 11 areas that the OECD has identified as essential for well-being. The updated version contains the latest underlying statistics, country data, user findings and a translation into Spanish.

“Our Better Life Index goes beyond the cold, hard numbers of GDP to really get an understanding about what matters for people and about what they want and need out of their lives and their societies,” said OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría. “I’m delighted that we continue to update it with new information and in new languages so that we can get a truly global picture of well-being, reflecting people’s preferences and needs, wherever and whomever they are.”

Since the launch in 2011, over 24 000 users have shared their preferences with the OECD. User findings have shed light on what policies should focus on for better lives, complementing evidence from other OECD initiatives that analyse the key drivers of individual and collective well-being.

Key findings from shared indexes include:

• people care more about their life satisfaction, health and education than their material needs, a finding that is in line with what other studies have shown. However, priorities vary when looking at specific regions of the world. For instance, users in Africa and Latin America give more weight to material conditions than users in North America.

• Women and men agree on the importance of most dimensions of well-being. But men tend to care more about income and less about community, health and work-life balance. This is also consistent with what we observed last year.

• Preferences also vary across age groups. Feedback from users shows that the importance of health and civic engagement increases with age, while younger people tend to attach greater importance to work-life balance. Education is an important dimension of well-being regardless of people’s age.

• Also, users in France tend to care more about community than their peers in other countries.