Social Indicators
Social indicators measure the quality of life and many socio-economic conditions of a geographic area. The following links show the different ways communities, nations, and international organizations use social indicators.
Institute for Innovation in Social Policy
The Institute for Innovation in Social Policy analyzes and publishes social indicators. The Institute works on social indicators at the national, state, and international level as a way to improve the understanding and reporting of social conditions. The Index of Social Health monitors the social well-being of American society by combining a number of indicators to produce a single number.
Community Action Network-Indicators: Data and Projects
The Community Action Network consists of many partners based in Travis County, including the city of Austin, working together to help the community optimize its resources and close the opportunity gap. The indicator topics are learning, working, thriving, connecting and leading, and special populations. CAN uses these indicators to identify community needs, conditions, and resources so that community actions plans can be formed for leveraging the resources against the identified needs.
Central Texas Sustainability Indicators Project
The CTSIP intends to increase awareness and commitment to sustainability for the Austin-Round Rock area of Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. Part of the CTSIP’s goal of sustainability is the creation of quality of life indicators that allow for the tracking of progress and acts as a catalyst for increasing the effectiveness of community engagement. The indicators from this project include the following topics: public safety, education and children, social equity, civic engagement, economy, health, environment, and land use/mobility.
Dallas Indicators
Dallas Indicators is a proud part of the growing community of local data initiatives and is a part of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership. Dallas Indicators provides accurate demographic, socioeconomic, and well-being data for the Dallas, Texas area.
National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership
The NNIP is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood information systems in local policymaking and community building. NNIP partners use indicators that cover topics such as births, deaths, crime, health status, educational performance, public assistance, and property conditions. To succeed, NNIP partners operate differently from traditional planners and researchers by democratizing their information, making it available directly to the city and community leaders.
2008 Older Americans: Key Indicators of Well-Being
The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics publishes reports concerning the well-being of aging Americans. In the 2008 report, the Forum uses indicators that cover topics like population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, health care, and literacy and health literacy.
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007
The Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics compiles and reports data on conditions and trends for families and children. This report consists of 38 key indicators on important parts of children’s lives.; The report has seven sections covering the topics of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.
Sustainable Measures
Sustainable Measures works with communities, companies, regional organizations, and government agencies to develop indicators to measure progress towards a sustainable society, economy, and environment.; Sustainable Measures provides a database to search for indicators and a free one-day training course on sustainable community indicators.
Social Trends
Annually the Office for National Statistics in the UK publishes the report, Social Trends. This report describes the broad picture of UK society today and the changes that have taken place. Each chapter focuses on a different social policy area drawing together social and economic data from a variety of government departments and other organizations.
United Nations Statistics Division-Demographic and Social Statistics
The UN compiles social indicators for nations, covering a wide range of subject-matter from many national and international sources. The indicators consist mainly of a minimum list which has been proposed for follow-up and monitoring implementation of major UN conferences on children, population and development, social development and women.
