DO WE NEED A KEN’S BLOG SATISFACTION INDEX?

DO WE NEED A KEN’S BLOG SATISFACTION INDEX?

Every couple of months I seem to read a report of some agency that has produced an index to measure various nebulous human conditions such as happiness or well being or job satisfaction. It must be the mandate of many government agencies to try to justify their  existence by coming up with some unscientific measurement on some social issue. I am not sure if it serves any real purpose other than gathering a hodgepodge of data so that we can compare where we, as individuals or countries, stand relative to others. This week I stumbled upon the Child Flourishing Index. I am sure you can hardly wait to see how we did!

The Child Flourishing Index was instigated by UNICEF. The index was based on an aggregation of country-by-country data on various factors to measure child flourishing, including child survival rates, years of school, teen birth rates, maternal mortality, prevalence of violence, growth and nutrition, among other factors. A spokesman further indicated,"It's about knowledge, growth, going to school and learning and it's about being protected from violence.” And I thought, “So what?” What does it really mean and what does it really change?

The ten highest scoring countries were Norway, ranking first, South Korea, Netherlands, France, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Belgium, Iceland and the United Kingdom. I would suggest there were no big surprises with eight of the ten countries in Europe. The ten lowest scoring were also not surprising: Central African Republic, ranked last overall at No. 180, Chad, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Guinea, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Nine of the ten lowest ranking countries on the “Child Flourishing” scale were in Africa. Are any of these results surprising? Did we need to undertake a study and publish an index to confirm what we intuitively already knew?

Some other popular indices that we often read about include:
The Social Progress Index - measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress show the relative performance of nations.

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors.

The Well-Being Index measures Americans' perceptions of their lives and their daily experiences through five interrelated elements that make up well-being: sense of purpose, social relationships, financial security, relationship to community, and physical health.

The Life Satisfaction Index covers general feelings of well–being among older people to identify “successful” aging. The concept of life satisfaction is closely related to morale, adjustment and psychological well-being. Without even checking the rankings, I am sure I score somewhere near the top.

And the beat goes on. I just wonder if any of the many indices are really necessary and really bring about any significant change? In response to the question of the need for a Ken’s Blog Satisfaction Index, I will forego subjecting you to an intensive analysis of my topics, opinions, comments and observations. Regardless of what the results of such a meaningful survey might show, I will continue to write as I please, and simply thank you all for taking the time to occasionally read a blog or two. We don’t need this index either!