Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007 is the latest set of pointers to the state of the nation across a range of issues including health, housing, jobs, crime, education and the environment, which are all important for our sustainable development.
The set of 68 cross-Government indicators within the booklet includes 'traffic lights' to signal where things are getting better, worse or staying the same. More than half the official measurements show improvement.
Environment Minister Phil Woolas said:
"These indicators highlight some of the challenges for our lifestyles, for business and for policy makers if we are to develop sustainably. They help to illustrate where we are making progress and where we may need to develop our thinking and do things differently to get improvements. It is important that people can see for themselves where we as a country are getting things right or where we all need to do more or do things differently - not just in combating climate change, but in reducing other environmental impacts, in worrying about how we function as a society and how people are affected.
"What has perhaps been missing from these indicators in the past has been information on how people are affected by where they live, their work, and their daily lives. I therefore very much welcome the new preliminary measures of wellbeing that are also published today and included in this important indicator report.
“These show, in line with previous research, that most people are generally satisfied with their lives. But it will come as no surprise that this is not uniform across the population - the most disadvantaged are clearly less satisfied with their circumstances than the rest of the population.
"The wellbeing measures published today are still very much ‘work in progress’ and there is more to be done before we can be confident that we have the right approach."
Of all the distinct messages from the indicators (many indicators comprise more than one measure) there are 50 measures which show improvement, 11 show deterioration, and 32 show no change, when comparing the latest available data with the situation seven or eight years ago.
Compared with 1999, areas showing improvement include:
Areas showing deterioration include:
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aviation emissions of greenhouse gases
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fossil fuels used for electricity generation
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differences in life expectancy between local authority areas
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urban ozone pollution
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childhood obesity
Wellbeing is an issue that is at the heart of sustainable development. The 2005 UK sustainable development strategy included a commitment to consider how we might better reflect wellbeing through indicators and in policy development.
A cross-Government understanding on what wellbeing means in a policy context and its importance for policy development is also published on the UK Governments sustainable development website. Within this context, for the first time in this year’s indicator publication, there is information on people’s own assessments of their lives. The measures show that almost three quarters of people are fairly or very satisfied with their lives – rating their lives with a score of at least 7 out of 10. However, there are differences between people of different backgrounds, and a small minority are very dissatisfied with their lives.
Twenty of the sustainable development indicators in the publication are also 'UK Framework indicators' covering key impacts and outcomes that reflect the priority areas shared by the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
These include:
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greenhouse gas emissions
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river water quality
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bird populations
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crime
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health inequality
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environmental equality
Copies of the free booklet of indicators are being sent to all schools, colleges, libraries and local councils in England in an effort to stimulate interest and discussion in sustainable development issues. The booklet can also be downloaded from the UK sustainable development website.
