Resource Websites

Canadian Federal Government Quality of Life Hub: Updates on Canada’s Quality of Life Framework and the latest evidence on the domains of life satisfaction and sense of meaning and purpose, prosperity, health, society, environment, and good governance.

OECD Centre on Wellbeing, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE): An OECD Centre producing new data and approaches to improve people’s wellbeing and reduce inequalities, and better understand the impact of policies and business actions.

Life Satisfaction in Canada : Resources on the measurement of subjective wellbeing (SWB) from the Happiness Economics Research Group at McGill University including Canadian and international data, trends, maps, and publications.

What Works Wellbeing UK Centre : A static repository from the former UK’s independent wellbeing policy body (2014-2024) providing policy practice examples, guidance on measuring wellbeing, searchable knowledge/evidence banks, and a large range of other resources. The resources are still publicly available, but are no longer updated.

Tools & Guidelines

Measuring Wellbeing & Progress: OECD Wellbeing Research Guidelines

Wellbeing Mapping Tool of Engage Nova Scotia: Visualization of the latest Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey data, including demographic information and wellbeing domains and indicators, by geographic area.

Child Community Health Inclusion Index: a measurement tool to gather information on the resources and features of a community facility that are inclusive of all members of the community, including children with disabilities.

UK Government Green Book Supplementary Guidance: Supplementary guidance to the UK Green Book covering the consideration of wellbeing as part of the Green Book methodology.

“A Handbook for Wellbeing Policy-Making” by Paul Frijters and Christian Krekel (2021).

UK Government Green Book Supplementary Guidance: Supplementary guidance to the UK Green Book covering the consideration of wellbeing as part of the Green Book methodology.

What Works Wellbeing (UK) Centre

• The wellbeing evidence hub: Resources on how wellbeing-oriented research is being used in practice and policy.
• Local wellbeing policy webinar presentations
• Wellbeing evidence at the heart of policy report: A report that gives an introduction to important policy questions such as Why put wellbeing at the heart of public policy? What wellbeing factors Matter? What can we do?
• Practice examples: Wellbeing policy practice examples from the UK and overseas.
• Maturity model for wellbeing policy making: This self-assessment tool assesses coherence in wellbeing policy making. Each of the six hallmarks has descriptions illustrating three levels: assuring, enhancing and optimizing wellbeing.
• Overview of key points from “A Handbook for Wellbeing Policy-Making”

Canadian Frameworks & Initiatives

Canadian Federal Government Quality of Life Hub: Features Canada’s Quality of Life Framework, information on the framework domain and cross-cutting lenses, and a selection of Statistics Canada’s analysis relevant to quality of life in Canada.

Toward a Quality of Life Strategy for Canada (2021): A federal report describing the development of, and introducing, Canada’s Quality of Life Framework.

Canadian Index of Wellbeing: The CIW has created a conceptual framework and metrics to effectively measure what changes have occurred to Canadians’ wellbeing. This includes a  composite index of eight interconnected domains measuring Canadian’s quality of life.

Engage Nova Scotia: Leads the Nova Scotia Quality of Life Initiative that “aspires to centre wellbeing as a measure of success and progress that guides us all”. This includes a Nova Scotia Index of Wellbeing (2018), Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey (2019), and a wellbeing mapping tool.

SaskWellbeing: Promotes conversation and multi-sectoral collaboration among communities and decision-makers to improve the quality of life for all citizens in Saskatchewan. They have developed a Saskatchewan Index of Wellbeing (2019) to help promote a wellbeing lens in government.

Yukon Government: The Government of Yukon’s final report by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) that provides a snapshot of the quality of life in the Yukon based on a major survey that happened in summer 2020. The information will now be used to inform evidence-based policy development, funding decisions, program development, and service delivery.

Centering First Nations Concepts of Wellbeing; Toward a GDP-Alternative Index in British Columbia (2020): A discussion paper that explores the ways in which official BC measures of economic value are inadequate and fail to reflect the values of First Nations governments and individuals and that proposes an Indigenous-centric, made-in-BC wellbeing index.

Urban Wellbeing Edmonton:  Program which conducts social research and experiments to improve the wellbeing of urban Edmontonians, largely guided by their independently developed Wellbeing Framework.

Canadian Index of Child and Youth Wellbeing:  A framework built to bring together a wide range of data in order to measure levels, inequalities and trends in the state of children and youth in Canada. The Index provides a comprehensive view of how kids in Canada are doing. Data is tracked using the most recent statistical data for 125 indicators across nine “life” dimensions from birth to age 18.

Data Governance & Management Toolkit: A collection of resources to help self-governments gather and manage data, and discusses the use of wellbeing indicators and frameworks, including a webinar series.

Vital Signs Canada: National initiative of the Community Foundations of Canada that aims to measure the quality of life in communities across the country in collaboration with community foundations and local organizations.

MyPeg: A community indicator system, tracking indicators that reflect and measure well-being in the City of Winnipeg. This initiative is led by United Way Winnipeg and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy: Webinars and publications on wellbeing policy, wellbeing budgeting, and public health.

Nisga’a Lisims Government Quality of Life Strategy: A governing strategy developed by the Nisga’a Government in 2013 to emphasize sustainability and quality of life in the implementation of their government programs and services. A Case Study provides more information on this initiative.

First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework: A foundational framework developed by the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation that outlines a wellness approach grounded in culture to advance the mental wellness of First Nations people in Canada.

The Community Wellbeing Index in First Nations Communities, Present, Past, and Future: A 2008 index that measures First Nations’ wellbeing at the community level.

Measuring Wellness – Gwen Philipps (2015): A guide for First Nations to develop community wellness indicators.

For more information about International Frameworks & Initiatives, click here.