European Public Policies have traditionally focused on material welfare conditions and indicators, but recent studies demand the inclusion of other subjective indicators. This work deals with the need to go beyond welfare to well‐being and aims a critical review of the scientific literature on subjective well‐being and quality of life in social policies, and of the indicators usually managed for its operationalization. A comparative study of different variables used by the OECD Better Life Index (BLI, 2014) has been carried out to analyze the relationship between social and economic indicators and the other indicators traditionally linked to life satisfaction and subjective perception of life satisfaction. As the main result, this research remarks the need to include social policies in analyses of well‐being as a key element in people's satisfaction, recognizing the perception of subjective well‐being and quality of life as a political and public issue.
Part of the book: Quality of Life and Quality of Working Life