THE UK places only 16th out of 33 nations on the new Scotianomics Wellbeing Economy Index.
The index measures countries across five dimensions that make up the wellbeing economic approach, which treats quality of life, equality, fairness, happiness and health as economic outcomes that should be given equal weight in decision making as GDP growth.
The top five places on the index were taken by Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland – all northern European nations with a similar population size to Scotland.
Scotianomics, the wellbeing think tank, also published a new report on measuring the wellbeing economy, titled: Defining and Quantifying the Wellbeing Economic Approach.
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The report sets out a plan for implementing a wellbeing economy using the wellbeing economic approach and describes how its success can be measured by policymakers.
It also argues for a move towards a new economic system for a “happier, healthier, wealthier, more prosperous nation” that shifts government, businesses and individuals away from focusing only on GDP growth as the dominant measure of economic success.
Scotianomics chief economist, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp said: “Our economic system is broken. The economic ideas from last century offer no solutions to the problems of this century – especially the climate crisis and the coming impact of AI and robotics on the labour market.
“We need to press the reset button – tinkering within the restrictions of the current economic system will achieve nothing. We require a paradigm shift and a system change.
“The wellbeing economic approach is that system change. The prime measure of the neoliberal economy is GDP, despite its inadequacies and built-in negative outcomes for people and the planet.
"The Scotianomics Wellbeing Economy Index shows how we can start to create a measurement system that places wellbeing metrics such as quality of life, equality, fairness, happiness and health as economic outcomes that should be given equal weight (at the very least) to economic growth.”
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