Measuring well-being and progress: Looking beyond GDP

Briefing 04-03-2014

Gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of national economic production, has come to be used as a general measure of well-being and progress in society, and as a key indicator in deciding a wide range of public policies. However GDP does not take into account non-economic factors such as social issues and the environment. In the aftermath of the crisis, the EU needs reliable, transparent and convincing measures for evaluating progress.