Wellbeing economy

Wellbeing economy is a public policy framework in which the economy is designed to serve social, health, cultural, equity and nature outcomes. The aim is to go beyond gross domestic product (GDP) as the main measure of national economic performance. Since the early 2000s there has been growing interest in wellbeing as a framework in research, measurement and policy.

National and international adoption
A number of countries have introduced wellbeing metrics to guide public policy decision-making and inform budgetary processes with a focus on education and skills, health, gender and inclusion. The approach has been adopted as national policy in a number of countries including Scotland, New Zealand, Iceland, Wales, Finland and Canada which established the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership (WEGo) in 2021.

Intergovernmental organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have also adopted wellbeing as a whole-of-government approach to meet complex social, environmental and public health challenges. This was first articulated in 2021 with the adoption of the Geneva Charter for Wellbeing. and in May 2023 the WHO Assembly adopted A global framework for integrating well-being into public health utilizing a health promotion approach,