OECD Society at a glance 2011

This is the sixth edition of Society at a Glance, the OECD’s biennial overview of social indicators.
As with its predecessors, this report addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on
social well-being and its trends across OECD countries. It updates some indicators included in the
previous five editions and introduces several new ones.
The 2011 report heralds the arrival of four new OECD member countries: Chile, Estonia, Israel and
Slovenia. These countries are included in Society at a …

This is the sixth edition of Society at a Glance, the OECD’s biennial overview of social indicators.
As with its predecessors, this report addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on
social well-being and its trends across OECD countries. It updates some indicators included in the
previous five editions and introduces several new ones.
The 2011 report heralds the arrival of four new OECD member countries: Chile, Estonia, Israel and
Slovenia. These countries are included in Society at a Glance for the first time. Data on Brazil, China,
India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and South Africa are also included separately where available.
This report features a special chapter on unpaid work (Chapter 1). It also provides a guide to
help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators (Chapter 2), and a summary
of the main trends (Chapter 3). Indicators are then considered. More detailed information on
indicators, including some not included in this print edition, can be found on the OECD web pages
(www.oecd.org/els/social/indicators/SAG).
This report was prepared by Simon Chapple and Maxime Ladaique. Nabil Ali, Michael De Looper,
Michael Förster, Pauline Fron, Herwig Immervoll, Gaetan Lafortune, Thomas Liebig, Pascal Marianna,
Veerle Miranda (special chapter), Marlène Mohier, Dominique Paturot, Andrew Reilly,
Dominic Richardson, Kim Robin and Olivier Thévenon all made valuable contributions.
Monika Queisser, Head of the OECD Social Policy Division, supervised the report.