Subjective wellbeing in Malta - an interactive online data dashboard

Abstract

Malta has undergone rapid development since gaining independence and now performs exceptionally well on traditional metrics of material wellbeing like Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is more laggard on broader indicators of sustainable development or quality-of-life (for instance, work-life balance) but still positions well in world rankings. Yet neither the narrow view of material-wellbeing, nor the broader view offered by objective data dashboards, have, to date, been capable of offering a complete picture of wellbeing in Malta - in that they lack the dimension of subjective wellbeing. Surveys asking how people feel can offer a democratic and direct account of wellbeing - as judged by individuals themselves. Furthermore, generating sufficiently large representative data-sets on self-assessed wellbeing offers the potential to go beyond national averages to allow the examination of disaggregated data pertaining to diverse socio-economic groups. This presentation showcases the results of a collaboration of the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, with the University of Malta, resulting in a dedicated on-line portal acting as a one-stop-shop of Wellbeing Indicators, Networking, Data, Exploratory studies and eXchange (INDEX). Within this, a dashboard of subjective wellbeing data in Malta visualises indicators on satisfaction (in different life domains) and affect (positive and negative emotions), collected by the National Statistics Office utilising the European Union’s “Wellbeing Module” (SILC). Users may juxtapose wellbeing trends against a range of relevant variables on income and living conditions as well as drilling down by demographic characteristics in order to obtain insights on wellbeing in Malta.