Taking it global: Toward an index of wellbeing for low- to middle-income countries

This chapter discusses the limitations of using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -type tools in measuring the wellbeing of populations, reviews the recent development of alternative measures, and suggests a metric going forward - the Global Index of Wellbeing, based upon the successful Canadian Index of Wellbeing. In principle, all "beyond GDP" approaches report some information about the wellbeing of populations albeit with some limitations. In principle, all "beyond GDP" approaches report some information about the wellbeing of populations albeit with some limitations. First, the GDP+ and GDP++ measures only make adjustments to GDP to reflect other common aspirations of society and social outcomes. A second set of wellbeing measures are those based on subjective wellbeing or a combination of subjective and objective measures of wellbeing. A third group of measures that are useful for the low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) context are objective measures of wellbeing.