Global efforts to measure well-being and to integrate well-being indicators into the policy process became more signifiant after the global financial crisis. In 2011, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) developed the KIHASA-Chosun Welfare Index (KCWI) in order to examine the level of well-being across 30 OECD countries, in terms of economic, social, and demographic factors.
By applying the OECD Pressure?State?Response framework (2009) to the KCWI, the current study aims to explore the level of well-being among 34 OECD countries and to provide a broad view of well-being in Korea. The KCWI 2016 is classified into five areas: (1) economic vitality, (2) fiscal sustainability, (3) welfare needs, (4) welfare fulfillment, and (5) national happiness. A total of 23 indicators are used to measure and assess well-being across 34 OECD countries.
The results of the KCWI 2016 showed that Korea scored 0.593 for economic vitality, 0.778 for fiscal sustainability, 0.734 for welfare needs, 0.786 for welfare fulfillment, and 0.133 for national happiness. Korea’s scores welfare fullfillment and national happiness are lower than the OECD average.
Figure 1 shows well-being scores for the five areas in Korea and in the OECD average.