Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) Taiwan has received the highest score in Asia for the mechanism it has adopted to measure its people's wellbeing, taking reference from the "Your Better Life Index (BLI)" compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In its report on the 2016 National Wellbeing Index (NWI) released Wednesday, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said that the composite index, based on the BLI's 24 international indicators, was 6.96 points.

Compared with 35 OECD member states and its three partner states, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, the index in Taiwan ranked 16th, but it topped other Asian countries that were included in the OECD's survey on people's wellbeing, according to the DGBAS report.

Taiwan's scored higher than Japan (5.77 points) and South Korea (4.93 points), which were ranked 24th and 29th, respectively, according to the report.

Japan and South Korea were the only two other Asian countries evaluated in the OECD survey, it added.

The NWI in Taiwan is derived from the BLI's 11 indices, namely housing conditions, income and wealth, jobs and earnings, social connections, education and skills, environmental quality, civic engagement and governance, health status, subjective wellbeing, personal security and work and life balance.

Within those indices are 24 international indicators that include, housing expenditure, disposable income, household financial wealth, employment rate, personal earnings, job security, and life expectancy.

Norway topped the list with a composite score of 8.00 points in 2016 report, followed by Australia with 7.93 points and Denmark with 7.90 points, the report said.

(By Chen Cheng-wei and Romulo Huang)
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