The Stories the Numbers Do Not Tell
This chapter discusses the measurement of well-being in a Culture of Health. The aggregate numbers and standard measures typically used to measure progress—growth rates, unemployment figures, and stock market trends—mask the underlying crisis of social ill-being. In contrast, well-being metrics uncover the stories that these numbers do not tell. As such, incorporating measures of well-being to provide a more nuanced view of how people are doing; to inform policies to address serious pockets of ill-being and to enhance aggregate societal well-being; and to create a new narrative about social progress is a proposition whose time has come. Surveys are a standard data collection mechanism for well-being data, and there is now established best practice for implementing well-being surveys. A key consensus is on the importance of measuring three distinct dimensions of well-being: hedonic, evaluative, and eudaimonic. The chapter then describes hedonic metrics, evaluative metrics, and eudaimonic metrics. Ideal measurement practice includes all three sets of measures, as they each reveal different elements of quality of life and well-being, ranging from daily moods to life course evaluations to purposefulness or lack thereof.