Per Capita Wealth

Indicator Rationale

Economic well-being is a crucial element contributing to quality of life because basic needs such as food, water, shelter, healthcare and many forms of recreation have to be purchased (ABS National Headline Sustainability Indicators).  Happiness and quality of life are inter-related to our capacity in meeting these basic needs, but not in attaining extravagant material wealth.  Studies have shown that people in our society in the endless pursuit of material wealth are striving for external rewards, that is, the individual searches for worth outside themselves (Kasser, 2002). 

Furthermore, economic growth in most economically developed societies is accompanied by little rise in the subjective well-being of its citizens (Diener and Biswas-Diener, 2001).

 

Measure

Measure needs to be explored further.

Data Source

Data sources need to be explored further.

References

Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Will money increase subjective well-being? Social Indicators Research. 2002;57:119–169.

Kasser, T. "The high price of materialism" MIT Press; Cambridge, MA: 2002.

Melbourne Institute (2006).  Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey (HILDA).

Melbourne Institute (2005), Inequalitites of Aussie Wealth, September 2005, Issue 9.