A guide to the UK Prosperity Index

Publication type

Report

Author

  1. -

Publication date

June 1, 2016

Summary:

The UK Prosperity Index is a comprehensive measure of prosperity across UK local authority areas. Prosperity—broadly defined as wealth and wellbeing—is a multi-dimensional measure of the determinants of a good life. It goes beyond GDP as a measure of national success to capture human flourishing. Wealth creation is important, but so too are health, education, and community. The global Prosperity Index, measuring prosperity at a national level, looks at the many dimensions of human flourishing through a lens of wealth and wellbeing. Yet we recognise that many of the enablers of, or obstacles to, flourishing occur at a far more local and personal level. These factors are what determine how national prosperity is distributed within a country, and with it, how prosperous a country is overall. These factors are what the UK Prosperity Index seeks to measure. The UK Prosperity Index takes objective and subjective data to measure prosperity across seven sub-indices: Economic Quality, Business Environment, Education, Health, Safety & Security, Social Capital, and Natural Environment. This reflects the pillars of the global Index, less those that are determined at the centre of government and that do not vary by local area, namely Personal Freedom and Governance. The data in the Index all comes from respected sources: the majority from the Office for National Statistics and various government sources. This is the first time this data has been brought together in this way to determine local success. The Index covers 389 of the UK’s 391 local authority areas. In England, this means the Index reaches the second tier of local government—district councils—where they still exist. The only two areas excluded from the Index are the Isles of Scilly and the City of London, where large amounts of data are missing.

Subjects

Link

http://www.uk.prosperity.com/docs/2016/2016UKProsperityIndexMethodology.pdf

Notes

Areas using Understanding Society data: Household income – percentage who are living comfortably on their current income ; Job satisfaction – percentage who were somewhat, mostly or completely satisfied with their job ; Health satisfaction – percentage who are satisfied with their health ; Smoking behaviour – percentage who smoke regularly ; Perception of community safety – percentage who have felt unsafe in public in the last 12 months ; Housing costs – percentage who have struggled to pay their mortgage or rent in the past 12 months ; Friendship support - percentage who feel they can rely on their friends if they have a problem ; Family support – percentage who feel they can rely on their family if they have a problem

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