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Understanding the Conceptual Framework


Discover how the Well-being framework will measure Ireland’s progress as a country

Ireland's Well-being Framework covers eleven dimensions or elements, which are interlinked, and can be broadly placed under the overarching categorisation of ‘People, Place, Society’. They cover both current and future well-being aspects.

The initial Well-being Framework for Ireland mould’s the OECD template, for an Irish context. It has been informed by internal engagement with policy makers and external consultation conducted through the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).

Together the dimensions capture or define overall well-being for Ireland. Although there are eleven separate dimensions, this framework supports the interconnectivity of well-being, and through this the complex impact of policies on well-being. Good outcomes do not occur in isolation, dimensions combine to create a higher goal or ambition of a good quality of life for the people of Ireland now and into the future.

Ireland’s Well-being Framework is illustrated below, followed by a detailed description and breakdown of each of the 11 dimensions.

The Framework and dimensions will be further refined through engagement, consultation and feedback.

Well-being of Person

Subjective Well-being

An individual’s personal perspective of their mental state, how their life is going and their outlook for the future.

This dimension may be seen as an overall crude measure of current well-being that incorporates the impact of circumstances experienced across all of the other dimensions of well-being.

Overall Life Assessment General feelings of life satisfaction – how satisfied a person is with their life overall.
Emotional State The feelings a person has had recently (this could cover an average of positive feelings, negative feelings, or the balance of the two).
Meaning/ Purpose The meaning or purpose a person feels their life has, or the sense that what one does is worthwhile.

Mental and Physical Health

The capacity of an individual to be and feel well, with good mental and physical health, living a life unencumbered by illness.

Mental and physical health is a crucial aspect of well-being and enables an individual to engage in economic, social, cultural, community and family life.

Physical Health Enables a person to live a healthy, long-lasting life. This encompasses longevity and healthy life years, alongside incidence of poor health or disability. It can also include the incidence of unhealthy (or healthy) living – for example, smoking or physical activity. Self-perceived health is also included here.
Mental wellness sustainable Good mental health allows individuals to cope with the normal stresses of life. This aspect also explores poor mental health such as the incidence of depressive symptoms, mental illnesses, addiction, or adverse outcomes based on mental health.
Access to health services Access is important for maintaining a healthy life. This can include affordability, the time it takes to be treated for health interventions or the distance to health facilities from a household.

Income and Wealth

The financial resources that shape the range of choices an individual has to meet their day-to-day needs and wants, and the ability to mitigate risks.

Income and wealth are fundamental tools that can dictate many different aspects of well-being.

Disposable income Captures what households have to spend after taxes and transfers. Disposable income is explicitly not connected to consumption and instead captures the freedom households have (or do not have) to spend.
Household wealth Wealth can provide a buffer for households to counter the impact of changing income or economic security, especially over the longer term. This includes available assets and outstanding debt. The appetite for risk, including the balance between investment/debt and saving are also captured here.
Economic Security Refers to the ability to make ends meet, both in the present and into the future. This aspect brings in the cost of living, the burden of debt repayment, and the stability (or lack thereof) of maintaining an adequate standard of living (including common high cost investements over the life cycle such as housing and childcare).

Knowledge and Skills

The skills and knowledge developed over the course of a person’s life shapes their ability to achieve, self-esteem, self-actualisation and lived experience in society.

As a dimension of well-being, the knowledge and skills dimension seeks to capture cognitive and non-cognitive skills, encompassing knowledge and skills learned across the life cycle.

Skills for Life The basic skills necessary for a person to function in society. This includes literacy, numeracy and digital skills that enable full participation in daily activities. Soft skills that are developed throughout life – for example resilience or communication skills are also captured here.
Formal education Enables recognition and provides an easier transition into the desired area of productive work. It includes the school readiness of children and transitions across education institutions and into the labour force. It recognises individual choice, including through different types of formal education & skills aquisition and through the ability of people to learn across the lifecycle (e.g. lifelong learning).
Innovation The ability to develop new products and services, processes and approaches. This ability can produce efficiencies or advantages that can produce societal and economic benefits (such as on productivity levels) both now and into the future. This aspect includes Research and Development, intellectual property and digitilisation.

Well-being of Place

Housing and Local Area

The physical structures that shape an individual’s ability to meet basic needs such as shelter, security and social belonging.

Housing captures the physical infrastructure that shapes the ability of an individual to meet key physiological needs (e.g. shelter), safety needs (e.g. personal security) and social belonging needs (e.g. a space for family, intimacy and a sense of connection). Housing location also determines access to local services.

Access to Housing The ability of a person to access and maintain secure housing. This includes affordability, for example the burden of housing costs (level of income left over after housing is paid for). This also includes the availability of accommodation, including the suitability of accommodation for current demographics, supply and demand.
Quality of Housing Relates to the availability of space in the home, and the suitability of a house for safe and healthy living. This includes personal space which allows for the functions that a home should provide for privacy, personal activities and spending time with family or friends.
Local Area The local area in which a residence is located can impact an individual's opportunities, including through access to services. This can include infrastruture such as education and transport as well as essential utilities.

Environment, Climate and Biodiversity

The environment that an individual lives in shapes their access to nature alongside access to basic needs such as clean water and air. The quality of this environment – both now and in the future – is also shaped by human influence and actions.

This dimension covers the environmental hazards and amenities that can impact well-being, including the impact of humans on the climate and environment in the long-term. The nature of the place in which an individual lives and works shapes their ability to meet physiological needs (e.g. clean water and air) as well as more transcendental needs (e.g. relating to and interacting with nature). Humans can also hold considerable influence over the environment and can impact it positively or negatively.

Experienced Environment Relates to a person's perception and experience of the beauty and amenities that are available within their local environment - for example, the availability and quality of local natural or green areas or the presence of litter.
Environmental Quality Includes air, water, and soil quality, which can impact human health. Protecting the quality of the environment is an important aspect of both current and future well-being.
Human Impact The preservation of the natural environment and the impact of humans on the environment, including through climate change, emissions, land use, waste and biodiversity. Mangaing human impact on the environment, climate and biodiversity is essential to protect future well-being, and to promote intergenerational equality.

Safety and Security

The factors that shape an individual’s ability to live life and engage in activities without fear of harm.

Safety and security cover the social, cultural, natural and institutional factors that shape the ability of an individual to live life and engage in activities without fear of harm from other people and to mitigate the risks and impacts associated with infrastructural, mechanical and natural hazards. Harm can come from crime, conflict, violence, terrorism, accidents or natural disasters, and can occur online.

Incidence of Crime The freedom from intentional harm from other people (within the home, community or more widely). There are a broad variety of crimes that can be included here, for example crimes against property, assault, homicide, hate crime, domestic violence and coercive control, anti-social behaviour or cybercrime.
Threats to Safety The freedom from accidental harm (including infrastructural, institutional, mechanical and natural hazards). This aspect includes, for example, the incidence and severity of road or workplace accidents and the prevalence and severity of extreme weather events.
Perceived Safety and Security A high level of subjective safety enables people to exist and move through society more freely. This aspect focuses on how safe a person feels in everyday activities (e.g. on public transport, walking home at night). This aspect also includes trust in the rule of law.

Well-being of Society

Work (paid and unpaid) and Job Quality

The productive activities (both paid and unpaid) that shape how an individual progresses throughout their life, alongside building and supporting their self-esteem and contribution to society.

Work and job quality shapes progression by supporting the development of skills and abilities. It also supports well-being through fulfilling ambitions and supporting self-esteem.

Work Quantity The availability of jobs and the size of the labour force, indicating the availability and up-take of work. This includes levels of employment, underemployment or labour force participation. It also encompasses the risk of losing a job (be this income or other job-related benefits), and the protections in place that might mitigate the risk. This aspect also covers the ability to start and grow a new business (entrepreneurship).
Work Quality The material and non-material aspects of all work which enables a sense of progress and worth. These include fair remuneration for employment, physical safety, intensity, the availability of learning opportunities, type of contract, career development, and how well a job matches a person's skills. Other institutional factors such as working times and location arrangements, autonomy, and support between co-workers also affect a person's well-being.
Work Satisfaction An individual's subjective view of their work (both paid and unpaid) captures some of the complex interconnections that the material and non-material aspects of work provide to a person’s well-being, and the motivations that different people have for their work.

Time Use

The ability of an individual to manage the demands placed on their time, and their access to time for personal development, leisure or hobbies.

Time use is about combining relationship/family/home commitments, leisure, development and work (both paid and unpaid), subject to the constraint of a fixed quantity of time available in any single day.

Demands on Time The external demands on an individual’s time – for example job hours, caring duties, home duties or commuting.
Personal Time The ability of people to have time to themselves for their own personal development, hobbies or leisure. This includes the quantity of time available for leisure and recreation (e.g., free time). How a person uses that time – e.g. engaging in sports, culture and arts, socialising etc. – is a personal choice.
Time Use Satisfaction A subjective view of time use is important as people value what they do with their time differently. Many people find satisfaction in different aspects of caring duties, unpaid work, paid work or leisure activities which may not be illustrated by focusing exclusively on the amount of time spent on each.

Community, Social Connections and Cultural Participation

The ability of an individual to meet the basic needs of personal connection and engagement with their community, including through cultural participation.

This dimension highlights the opportunities that an individual has for engaging with other people and sharing activities – including community activities – to meet their basic social needs and psychological and self-fulfilment needs. This includes online social connections and interactions.

Social Quantity The frequency and amount of time spent with other people – including members of a person’s household, family, friends, colleagues, other known people, and also cultural participation. The balance of time spent in offline versus online social interaction is included here.
Social Quality The satisfaction that individuals have with their social interactions, including perceived loneliness and feelings of support provided by connections.
Community Activity The overall connectedness of individuals to their community. This can include volunteering, engaging with local and national heritage, membership of community groups such as sporting clubs, artistic or creative groups, local development networks, etc.

The Government has committed to further exploring the definition of culture as it relates to well-being. Once this has been completed, another aspect specifically on culture could be included here.

Civic Engagement and Cultural Expression (Identity)

The opportunities an individual has to participate, impact and contribute to the functioning of their society, and the freedom of expression including of culture, religion or language.

As a dimension of well-being, the civic engagement dimension tends to be concerned with people's behaviour, subjective evaluations of various institutions including trust, and experiences of unfair behaviour.

Opportunity and Take-up The ability of individuals to access and utilise opportunities to shape their locality and country through civic engagement. Opportunity covers the limits on access to public office or other forms of civic engagement such as voting and how easy it is to engage. It also includes the take-up of these opportunities, including voter turnout and active membership in political parties or movements, or other forms of activism.
Impact The impact of civic involvement includes whether movements or activities result in tangible change. For example, in Government policies or the direction of public spending. Trust in public institutions is also included here.
Culture and Non-Discrimination A person’s rights to express their culture/identity, including participation in ethnic, religious or language expression and the prevalence of discrimination. This includes activity relating to specific groups, for example cultural practices and expression of migrant or ’new Irish’, alongside traditional Irish communities. It also includes the ability to express one’s culture/identity or use one’s native language, and places a specific value on the Irish language.