Measuring inequalities in well-being

Describing how outcomes are distributed within societies is an essential part of measuring people’s well-being. While much of the recent debate on inequality focuses on income and wealth, inequality can touch every aspect of a person’s life. This chapter provides a framework and a set of indicators to assess inequalities across a wide variety of well-being domains, covering both material conditions and quality of life outcomes. Since there are several different ways to answer the question of “who gets what?” a number of different approaches to measuring inequalities are also presented. The analysis shows that inequalities in well-being are pervasive in all OECD countries: although some societies are more equal than others, no country “has it all”. The main steps necessary to improve the measurement of inequalities in well-being outcomes are also discussed.