Indicators of Quality of Life: Some Methodological Issues

Abstract

The importance of combining ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ indicators in assessing the quality of life has been increasingly stated as a research goal. A new methodology for measuring quality of life which is an attempt to satisfy this objective is discussed. It includes a perceptually derived set of weightings and ‘objectively’ measured indicators of social, economic, and environmental characteristics of the largest thirty-eight cities in Britain. The weighting system, the selected indicators, and the resulting rankings of British cities are assessed in comparison with the local prosperity index. The strength of the approach is shown to lie in the fact that this more closely reflects the evaluation process used by the public in assessing the quality of life.