10 October, 2025

For years, economists and policymakers have wrestled with the same question: if GDP isn’t the full story of wellbeing, what is? Efforts to broaden the focus beyond economic output have given rise to a range of alternative frameworks such as Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, UN’s Human Development Index and Iceland’s Wellbeing Framework. Yet GDP remains the go-to measure of development: it’s simple, easy to measure and we are accustomed to thinking that financial returns are what matter the most. 

A new study from the EU-funded MERGE project analysed 213 wellbeing frameworks from governments, NGOs, academia, etc. and found that despite considerable variety, there is a surprising overlap in what people value. The study distilled these overlaps into a 20-component framework covering themes such as life satisfaction, health, education, crime, natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as more traditional economic measures (including GDP). Their results could help drive a global transition toward a more holistic measure of development. 

Perhaps the most powerful insight is the shared set of priorities it reveals. Across borders and cultures, we value many of the same things: health, safety, connection, and a thriving planet. And it’s not just governments that can learn from this. Businesses can take a leaf out of this book too and rethink how they define success, expanding their assessment from profit alone to include social and environmental impact. Models like the “triple bottom line” (people, planet, profit) and the “seven capitals” approach (financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social, and natural) already show what this looks like in practice. 

By building on this emerging consensus, countries and companies alike can move toward measures of progress that reflect not just how fast we’re growing, but how well we’re living. 

By Tulika Agarwal