Social Indicators in Taiwan

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Social Indicators in Taiwan

• Bureau of Statistics, DGBAS
• JAO, Chih- Chien

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Contents

1. Progress of Social Indicator Development in
   Taiwan
2. Peoples Life Indicator (PLI) compound index
3. Future Prospect
4. Conclusion

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1. Social Indicator Development in Taiwan
Past and Present
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Taiwans Social Indicators development History
(1) In Academia

• 1995Compile Peoples Life Indicator compound
  index (9 areas 55 indicators)

(2)In Government

• 1979DGBAS embarked on the Annual Social
  Indicator Report

• 1975
• CEPD worked on the Annual Social Welfare
  Indicators

• 1990Compile Social Indicator Compound Index
  (11 areas 248 indicators)

• 1980Academia Sinica organized 3 seminars on
  social indicators

Compile Social Indicator Annually
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2. Peoples Life Indicator (PLI) compound index
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Social Indicators Compound index 1990-
Peoples Life Indicators (PLI) 1995-
The objective( measuring overall social
development) is too broad to explain and it has
no direct relations with real feeling of life.
Q o L
Social Indicators Yearbook 1979-
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Framework of PLI (2001 Revised)

• 9 Divisions?24 The Sub-divisions?47 Statistics
  Items ?
• 55 Statistical Indicators

Objective Indicators Persons Aged 65 Years and
Over Living with Relatives Abandoned Infants
Rate Single Parent Rate Crude Divorce Rate
Children Mistreated as of Total Population
under 12 Percentage of Population under 18 That
Has Left Home Average Living Space for Each
Person House Rent as Family Disposable Income

Subjective Indicators Satisfaction with
Taking Care Of Parent Satisfaction with Rearing
and Educating Children Satisfaction with
Marriage Satisfaction with Relationship between
Parent and Child Satisfaction with Living
Space Satisfaction with Loan or Rent for House
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Composite Indices of PLI
Survey on the Importance of PLI
? Importance Satisfication ---
Demand ?
Weight
PLI Division ?
Subdivision ? Statistics Items
? Objective indicators
--------- Composite Indices
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Long-Term Trend
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Comment

• Through constant improvements and consulting with
  academic scholars, the quality of social
  indicator in Taiwan has been advanced.
• However, since our society is changing fast, the
  social indicator system and compound indexes are
  lagging behind in integrating important social
  issues and related theoretical frameworks. Thats
  what we have to improve in future.

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3. Future Prospect
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OECD Social Indicator Program
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(1) Areas of concern

• To determine areas of concern for a specific
  region, depends on the long-term observation of
  the local social conditions and development. It
  also relies on the application of social theories
  to formulate region-specific indicators.
• These should be modified or changed according to
  social development.

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Comparing Areas in TWN and AUS
Taiwan Australia
1.Population and Community 1.Population
2.Social Participation 2.Family and Community
3.Health 3.Health
4.Education and Research 4.Education and Training
5.Employment 5.Employment
6.Economic Conditions 6.Economic resources
7.Public Safety 7.Crime and Justice
8.Culture and Leisure 8.Culture and Leisure
9.1 Living Environment 9.Housing
9.2 Living Environment (Human sustainable develop.)
10.Social Welfare
11.Trans. and Communication
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ABS - Key Questions of Social Indicators System
(2) Factors affecting wellbeing
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Key Questions of Social Indicators System
(Continued)
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ABS - Key Questions of Social Indicators System
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Factors affecting wellbeing
Individual factors (disability education attainment income life transitions).
Social and other factors ( social capital transactions social change economic conditions)
. mutual trust, responsibility ( increase in
confidence for police and judicature, equality
between genders, consensus in environmental
protection, etc. )
Social Wellbeing
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(3) Social Indicators

• In fact, any statistic, either simple or derived,
  may be viewed as a social indicator if it
  reflects a social issue or idea or tells you
  something about social conditions, but a guide
  to selecting effective social indicators is
  provided opposite.
• Measuring Wellbeing Framework for Australian
  Social Statistics

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Suitable Social Indicators

• reflective
• meaningful and sensitive to changes
• summary in nature
• able to disaggregated
• easily interpreted
• available as a time series

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OECD Social Indicators Model

• state-response model,SR
• social context-status-response model,
• CSR

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(4) Social Issues

• Definition (biggest concerns)
• Social Shock
• 921 Earthquake (Taiwan,1999)
• 911 Terrorist attack (NY,2001)
• Social Movement
• Gender equality

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4. Conclusions

• Social indicators development in Taiwan for the
  past two decades greatly contributes to the
  depiction and interpretation of social
  circumstances.
• Future job of social indicators in Taiwan is to
  develop its own theoretical framework by learning
  from the experiences of advanced countries, and
  adjusting them according to its social
  conditions.

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4. Conclusions (Cont.)

• The government must continue its cooperation with
  the academia to update theories, to improve
  quality and to examine functions so as to
  maintain the flexibility and continuous progress
  of social indicators.
• With all these efforts, social indicators will be
  able to truly depict the society and faithfully
  disclose the status of well-being.

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Comments welcome

• Topics for discussion
• 1.The latest trends and developments of social
  indicators.
• 2.What kind of social indicators are needed to
  reveal social development in the future.

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The endThank you