Broadening Well-being Indicators for Developed Countries: a New Proposal Based on Key Social Needs

Abstract The aim of this paper is to propose a set of dimensions and indicators to measure the incidence and trends of unmet social needs related to well-being and aggregate them into a composite index (USNI). We contribute to the current literature on the measurement of social needs through broader and more systematic indicators based on the principles of access, quality, and equity. Using different microdata sources, we take a selected sample of European countries that are representative of different welfare regimes to illustrate the possibilities of this proposal. Our results are not very sensitive to the use of different weighting schemes or aggregation methods and show that the degree of unmet needs is related to the country’s type of welfare regime.