Quality of life and poverty in Ukraine – preliminary assessment based on the subjective well-being indicators

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of the information sources, methodology and main findings of the research of quality of life and poverty using indicators of subjective well-being applied by state statistics agencies in Ukraine. The paper describes the system of indicators for self-evaluation of the attained level of wellbeing, the level of satisfaction from meeting the basic living needs, and the limitations in consumption abilities of selected population groups due to hard conditions. In addition, methodological approaches in national statistics practice are discussed for the case of analysis of economic deprivation and for infrastructure development as indicator of geographic accessibility of services and non-geographic barriers causing the deprivation of access. Also, this paper reviews the factors that underlie the deprivations and define the percentage of population that is particularly affected by multiple deprivation in Ukraine. It covers the data on dynamics and analyses the distribution of deprivation by different population group, for several years. Finally, it describes further steps on the way to enhance the information capacity of subjective wellbeing studies, particularly as regards implementation of the contemporary approaches in international perspective, including Europe.