Taiwan’s national happiness index continues to top Asia despite dropping 0.17 of a point to 6.76, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Aug. 31.
Measuring the well-being of ROC citizens on a scale of 0-10 via 11 subindexes spanning material living conditions and quality of life, the DGBAS indicator includes 40 factors such as family relationships, food safety, freedom of speech, life expectancy and rent-to-income ratio.
Launched in 2013, the local benchmark is based on the Better Life Index of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The BLI pegged Taiwan 18th among the 34 OECD members, as well as Brazil and Russia, ahead of Japan at 21st and South Korea at 28th. Australia, Sweden and Norway topped the list in that order.
“While Taiwan outperformed most OECD members when it comes to material living conditions, this merit was offset by a slumping performance in the environment,” a DGBAS official said. “We expect Taiwan to climb the BLI as government efforts to improve quality of the country’s air and water resources start taking effect soon.”
Using household purchasing power parity comparison, Taiwan continued performing strongly in income, trailing only the U.S. on the BLI. The country similarly fared well in safety, shrugging off a one-spot drop to rank fifth alongside Australia.
Progress was notched up in civic engagement and environment, with respective rankings moving up to 16th and 35th. Although Taiwan continued rating at 21st and 15th in education and health, it was down three places in community and work-life balance to 16th and 23rd, respectively.
On a brighter note, Taiwan scored 6.4 in the subjective assessment of life satisfaction, which is close to the OECD average of 6.6.
This result is in line with a recent survey by Taipei City-based Academia Sinica, which tallied an average score of 6.69 in terms of life satisfaction among all ROC nationals, up from 6.32 the year before.
The study also found that those aged 15-24, as well as residents in eastern Taiwan and outlying islands, are generally more satisfied with their lives. (SFC-JSM)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw