“Happiness index” into regional development evaluation system – An Bei
From Xinhua (link):
A new economic index, that goes beyond reporting reams of hard industrial data, is emerging from annual meetings of regional legislatures that recently wrapped around the country. It’s called the ‘happiness index’.
First coined in the city of Xi’an work report the idea is to find a way to measure ‘the happiness of the people’ not just economic development. The capital of West China’s Shaanxi province wants to measure how “the people are sharing the fruits of development and improvements to social harmony“.
Beijing is also planning to develop criteria that will allow demographers to create a happiness index of the city’s residents. The happiness index will assess the city’s performance using five important people-first factors. These include access to medical care, improved housing conditions, quality of the environment, employment opportunities and public
security.
