System of Social Indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany: Application of Income and Supply

The system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany - developed in its original version as part of the SPES project under the direction of Wolfgang Zapf - provides quantitative information on levels, distributions and changes in quality of life, social progress and social change in Germany from 1950 to 2013, i.e. over a period of more than sixty years. With the approximately 400 objective and subjective indicators that the indicator system comprises in total, it claims to measure welfare and quality of life in Germany in a differentiated way across various areas of life and to observe them over time. In addition to the indicators for 13 areas of life, including income, education and health, a selection of cross-cutting global welfare measures were also included in the dashboard, i.e. general welfare indicators such as life satisfaction, social isolation or the Human Development Index. Based on available data from official statistics and survey data, time series were compiled for all indicators, ideally with annual values from 1950 to 2013. Around 90 of the indicators were marked as "key indicators" in order to highlight central dimensions of welfare and quality of life across the various areas of life. The further development and expansion, regular maintenance and updating as well as the provision of the data of the system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany have been among the tasks of the Center for Social Indicator Research, which is based at GESIS, since 1987. For a detailed description of the system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany, see the study description under "Other documents".<br>The data on the area of life ´Application of Income and Supply´ is composed as follows:
The system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany - developed in its original version as part of the SPES project under the leadership of Wolfgang Zapf - provides quantitative information on levels, distributions and changes in quality of life, social progress and social change in Germany from 1950 to 2013 , i.e. over a period of more than sixty years. The approximately 400 objective and subjective indicators that the indicator system includes as a whole aim to measure welfare and quality of life in Germany in a differentiated manner across different areas of life and to monitor them over time. In addition to the indicators for 13 areas of life, including income, education and health, a selection of cross-sectional global welfare measures were also included in the indicator system, i.e. general welfare indicators, such as life satisfaction, social isolation or the Human Development Index. Based on available data from official statistics and survey data, time series were compiled for all indicators, ideally with annual values from 1950 to 2013. Of the indicators, around 90 were marked as “key indicators” to identify central dimensions of welfare and quality of life across different areas of life to highlight. The further development and expansion, regular maintenance and updating as well as the provision of data from the system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany have been among the tasks of the Center for Social Indicators Research at GESIS since 1987. For a detailed description of the system of social indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany, see the study description under “Other documents”.