This is the fifth edition of Society at a Glance, the biennial OECD compendium of social indicators. This report attempts to satisfy the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends. It updates some of the indicators included in the 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 editions. It adds some new ones, including indicators of height, perceived health status, risky youth behaviour and bullying. In addition, a new set of headline social indicators are developed, providing an overview of social well-being and its trends. This report also includes a guide to help readers in understanding the structure of OECD social indicators, and a special chapter on leisure time across the OECD.

In the 1970s and 1980s, social indicators were developed to provide a better tool than conventional market income indicators for the assessment of living and working conditions. Today the various issues of Society at a Glance provide rich information on social conditions in different OECD countries and on the measures taken to improve them. This richness, however, comes at a price. It is difficult for readers to get a concise picture of how social conditions compare across countries and evolve over time from a quick scan of Society at a Glance.

The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people’s well-being for the direct satisfaction it brings. Additionally, leisure, taken in certain ways, is important for physical and mental health. Leisure also contributes to the well-being of people other than the person directly enjoying leisure. When a person engages in leisure, the benefits gained are shared with others in a multitude of ways, including improvements in personal relationships, family functioning, and in terms of creation of social capital networks (at least from some types of shared leisure). Leisure time patterns across the OECD therefore warrant investigation as an important part of social monitoring.