A Well-being Framework for Ireland: Understanding life in Ireland

Explore the data in the CSO's Well-being Information Hub

Understanding Life in Ireland - Well-being Framework Analysis

Explore the analysis of the dashboard in Understanding Life in Ireland.

Ireland’s Well-being Framework is a cross-government initiative to help improve our understanding of quality of life and to measure how we are progressing overall as a country. This can help us better align policy decisions with people’s experiences.

The importance of taking a new and broader approach to understanding people’s lives has never been clearer, particularly reflecting on our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Well-being Framework has the advantage of bringing economic, societal and environmental impacts together under one Framework. It also places a particular focus on equality and sustaining well-being into the future. It includes 11 dimensions of well-being, which capture the areas that matter most to the people of Ireland for a good quality of life, areas such as housing, skills, work, health and community.

In July 2021 the government's First Report on a Well-being Framework for Ireland was published. It captured the first phase of this work and set out the guiding vision and ambitions alongside an initial Well-being Framework and supporting Dashboard of Indicators informed by significant consultation with stakeholders carried out by the National Economic and Social Council.

The second phase of the work, captured in a Second Report - A Well-being Framework for Ireland, published in June 2022, included a Public Conversation and specific research which sought feedback on and tested the initial framework. This led to a refinement of the Framework, in particular placing a stronger focus on sustainability. The Report also sets out a pathway for embedding a well-being approach into the policy-making system over time, including into the Budget process.

Initial plans to take this approach forward include:

• annual published analysis of the well-being dashboard and a focus on well-being in the National Economic Dialogue;
• continued embedding into expenditure and evaluation policy;
• promotion of relevant research and policy developments; and
• clear supporting structures

This is the fourth year that the Well-being Framework has been incorporated into the Budgetary process. As such, it is a feature of the National Economic Dialogue, the Summer Economic Statement and in Budget Day documentation. This annual contribution to the Budget process supports a broader discussion of the impacts of Budgetary decisions, helping policymakers, and analysts alike, look beyond just economic factors but to consider wider issues facing the country. For more information on this process click here.

You can find more information on this initiative by clicking on the boxes below