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The OECD Risks that Matter survey finds that these worries are weighing on people’s minds across countries. Risks that Matter examines people’s perceptions of the social and economic risks they face and assesses how well people feel government reacts to their concerns. The survey polled a representative sample of 22 000 adults in 21 OECD countries in 2018. Across countries, people are largely dissatisfied with existing social programmes. A majority of respondents believe that government would not provide them with an adequate safety net if they lost their income due to job loss, illness or old age. More than half feel that they would not be able to access public benefits easily if they needed them. And, on average, nearly three-quarters of all respondents want government to do more to protect their social and economic security. This survey shows that listening to people matters. Implementation matters. OECD countries have some of the most advanced social protection systems in the world, but policies are not reaching their full potential if people do not feel they can access benefits and services when needed. Governments must recommit to restoring trust, confidence, and efficacy in social protection.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred perhaps the largest expansion of social protection systems in seventy years. Yet many people are still deeply affected by the crisis and are calling for even more help. Drawing on 25 000 responses across 25 OECD countries, the 2020 Risks that Matter survey finds that people are worried about keeping their jobs, paying the bills and staying healthy. Almost seven out of ten respondents say that their government should be doing more to ensure their economic and social security, and many are willing to pay more in taxes to support this. The perspectives presented in this report offer important lessons for how to expand and reform social protection as our societies and economies slowly start to recover from the pandemic.

Prices of essentials like energy and food have increased dramatically in OECD countries, adding uncertainty to household finances despite a persistently strong labour market post COVID-19. The latest edition of the OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) survey confirms that costs of living are at the top of people’s minds even in the world’s wealthiest countries: around nine in ten respondents, on average, report feeling concerned about inflation. Drawing on a representative sample of 27 000 respondents across 27 OECD countries, RTM illustrates respondents’ perceived economic risks, levels of satisfaction with current social policies, and preferences for future government action on social protection. People are calling on governments to help with the cost-of-living crisis, to spend more on health post COVID-19, and to reinforce support for older people, including in long-term care. Based on a comprehensive cross-national survey of perceptions of social protection, this report offers lessons for the functioning of social programmes as countries emerge from COVID-19, manage the cost-of-living crisis, and plan for future challenges.

Is ageing a threat to our societies' prosperity? How should resources be shared between the working generation and its dependent older citizens? How should pension, health and long-term care best be reformed? How can older people's contribution to society and economic prosperity be enhanced? Within the next decade, the numbers of retired people in OECD countries will start to grow much faster than those of working age. In the absence of major changes to pension systems and to the way people allocate their time between education, work and leisure, it is likely that fiscal and social strains will start to emerge. Some groups may be unfairly burdened through high taxation and others would face unexpected reductions in their material living standards. The appropriate policy response is multi-faceted, covering fiscal, social, labour market, financial market, health and education policies. An important part of the strategy for maintaining prosperity in an ageing society will involve encouraging people to work longer by making it financially more attractive for them to do so. In turn, this could entail reforms to traditional public pension systems and other social policies, as well as fostering the development of alternatives to public systems that give individuals more flexibility in deciding when to retire. Consequently, financial market infrastructures will need to be strengthened to cope with large increases in private pension fund assets. Through this multi-disciplinary study, the OECD points to the need to take action now by implementing a comprehensive and consistent set of policies.

The OECD series Making Integration Work summarises, in a non-technical way, the main issues surrounding the integration of immigrants and their children into their host countries. Each book presents concrete policy lessons for its theme, along with supporting examples of good practices and comparisons of the migrant integration policy frameworks in different OECD countries. This third volume explores the integration of family migrants, a diverse and large category of immigrants to the OECD area.

The OECD series Making Integration Work draws on key lessons from the OECD’s work on integration, particularly the Jobs for Immigrants country reviews series. The objective is to summarise in a non-technical way the main challenges and good policy practices to support the lasting integration of immigrants and their children for selected key groups and domains of integration. Each volume presents ten lessons and examples of good practice, complemented by synthetic comparisons of the integration policy frameworks in OECD countries. This first volume deals with refugees and others in need of protection, referred to as humanitarian migrants.

The OECD series Making Integration Work draws on key lessons from the OECD’s work on integration. The objective is to summarise in a non-technical way the main challenges and good policy practices to support the lasting integration of immigrants and their children for selected key groups and domains of integration.  Each volume presents ten lessons and examples of good practice, complemented by synthetic comparisons of the integration policy frameworks in OECD countries. This second volume deals with the assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications.

Despite the enormous burden that mental ill-health imposes on individuals, their families, society, health systems and the economy, mental health care remains a neglected area of health policy in too many countries. Mental disorders represent a considerable disease burden, and have a significant impact on the lives of the OECD population, and account for considerable direct and indirect costs. This report argues that even in those OECD countries with a long history of deinstitutionalisation, there is still a long way to go to make community-based mental health care that achieves good outcomes for people with severe mental illness a reality. The disproportionate focus on severe mental illness has meant that mild-to-moderate mental illnesses, which makes up the largest burden of disease, have remained overwhelmingly neglected. This book addresses the high cost of mental illness, weaknesses and innovative developments in the organisation of care, changes and future directions for the mental health workforce, the need to develop better indicators for mental health care and quality, and tools for better governance of the mental health system. The high burden of mental ill health and the accompanying costs in terms of reduced quality of life, loss of productivity, and premature mortality, mean that making mental health count for all OECD countries is a priority.

This report looks at the state of health in Malta.

Masculinities can either support or hinder women’s empowerment and greater gender equality. However, a lack of consistent and comparable data hinders efforts to understand and assess harmful, restrictive masculinities. This report identifies and describes ten norms of restrictive masculinities to be urgently addressed within the political, economic and private spheres. Alongside these norms the report highlights gender-equitable alternatives, which support women’s empowerment in practice. By mapping available and ideal indicators, the report provides a roadmap for efforts to measure changing norms of masculinities. In doing so, this report aims to support policies to transform masculinities by facilitating the creation of more and better data on masculine norms.

This publication gathers the papers presented at the “OECD-EU dialogue on mobility and international migration: matching economic migration with labour market needs” (Brussels, 24-25 February 2014), a conference jointly organised by the European Commission and the OECD. It provides new evidence on the role that international migration has played in Europe and in selected other OECD countries over the past decade in terms of labour force; educational attainment; and occupational changes. It analyses the availability and use of migrants’ skills based on an in-depth literature review as well as new data analyses for Europe and the United States, Canada and the OECD as a whole, taking advantage of the International Survey of Adult Skills – PIAAC. Finally, several chapters discuss the potential role of international migration in meeting current and future labour market needs in Europe, in the United States and in the European Union. This work shows that although migration can make an important contribution to labour force growth, its role in counterbalancing the effects of population ageing will depend on the capacity of countries to match labour needs to migrants’ characteristics.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a broad and ambitious programme for the world to achieve by 2030. With 17 Goals, underpinned by 169 Targets, the complex and integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda presents national governments with huge challenges for implementation. To assist countries, the OECD has developed a unique methodology allowing comparison of progress across SDG goals and targets. Based on the UN Global List of 244 indicators, this study evaluates the distance that OECD countries need to travel to meet SDG targets for which data is currently available. This 2019 edition of the study presents the latest results for OECD countries, both on average and individually, as well as new exploratory approaches to assessing progress over time and transboundary aspects of the SDGs. By providing a high-level overview of countries’ strengths and weaknesses in performance across the SDGs, this study aims to support member countries in navigating the SDGs and in setting their own priorities for action within the broad 2030 Agenda.

Science and technology improves human health but the pressure for faster and larger improvements is building with the continued ageing of the population of many OECD countries and the associated increased demands for health care. A fundamental starting point for better understanding of the impact of innovation on health is the measurement of R&D. This publication addresses this issue by looking in detail at measurement practices across ten OECD member countries as well as the main international sources.

Good mental health is a vital part of people’s well-being, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to its importance. However, discussions so far have not focused sufficiently on how governments should best monitor it at the broader population level, and on how to consider both mental ill-health and positive mental states. This report supports national statistical offices and other data producers in collecting high-quality measures of population mental health outcomes in a more frequent, consistent and internationally harmonised manner. It documents existing measurement practice across OECD countries, discusses the advantages and limitations of available measurement tools, and recommends priority measures to adopt in household, social and health surveys. Measuring Population Mental Health is the first of two reports as part of an assessment of mental health and well-being in the context of the OECD's work on measuring well-being.

The report Measuring Progress towards Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Japan is the outcome of a collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry which aims to monitor progress in key areas crucial to realising the Japanese government’s vision for a “New Form of Capitalism”. Building on the OECD Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive Growth, the report includes a set of key indicators to support measures for the government to deliver on its vision as well as inform on best practices in other major advanced economies. A central message is that creating the equality of opportunity in Japan requires a balanced approach of taking both efficiency and equity concerns into account. The report presents the main dynamics for policy consideration to strengthen sustainability of the Japanese growth model, with due attention paid to specific issues that matter for different groups of Japanese population. Underpinned by rigorous statistical analysis at a sufficiently disaggregated level, the report helps to better understand some of the main drivers of well-being and economic success in Japan.

The papers in this conference proceedings address the various conceptual, measurement and statistical policy issues that arise when applying accounting frameworks to the concept of sustainable development.