System of Social Indicators for the Federal Republic of Germany: Leisure and Media Consumption

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 monitor 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 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. 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>Amount and use of free time (first level): Amount of free time; Leisure activities in everyday life; Holiday trips; Spending on leisure goods (first level): Share of spending on leisure, entertainment and culture in spendable income; Share of expenditure on books, newspapers and magazines in all expenditure on leisure time; Share of photo, film equipment and optical equipment in all spending on leisure time; Subjective assessment of leisure time (first level): Subjective assessment of the amount of free time; Subjective importance of leisure time; Subjective satisfaction with the; Media (first level): Use of media; Duration of media usage; Reach of current media; Reach of the news in comparison; Subjective assessment of media loyalty.