The standard of living is associated with a certain degree of material comfort.
The standard of living is the degree of material comfort that an individual or a social group manages to obtain or aspires to achieve. The notion includes both products and services that are acquired individually as well as goods and services consumed collectively and those provided by the State .
Level is a term with several uses. One of them mentions a rank or a category . The concept of life , on the other hand, is linked to existence . These ideas allow us to establish that the standard of living is related to a certain category that people achieve in their existence.
The standard of living and the satisfaction of material needs
The satisfaction of material needs is the most important factor in determining the standard of living of the inhabitants of a region. In a city where residents are hungry or do not have a decent home, the standard of living is poor.
In general, it is possible to say that most megacities and very small towns do not offer a good standard of living. In the first case, pollution and stress are commonplace; In the second, on the other hand, the infrastructure and possibilities for economic development are usually deficient.
The standard of living is linked to access to education.
Measurement Forms
According to what is established by the United Nations Development Program ( known as UNDP ), there are several metrics that allow evaluating the standard of living of the inhabitants of a certain region; the most significant are the following:
- Human Development Index . It is a statistical and social indicator that arises from the analysis of three points: longevity and health (life expectancy is measured at the time of birth); the educational level (the literacy rate of adults and the enrollment rate in the different stages of the educational system are analyzed, which are primary, secondary and higher education); and the possibility of leading a decent life, which is measured based on the Gross Domestic Product or according to Purchasing Power Parity, in order to make the necessary comparisons.
- Multidimensional poverty index , which has recently replaced the human poverty index and which serves to study whether a series of fundamental aspects of life in society of our species are met, such as education and access to public health services;
- The level of access that each inhabitant of a given population has to services considered basic, calculated from health care;
- The quality and volume of drinking water supply (taking into account only the percentage of people who receive it in quantities sufficient for their subsistence) and the conservation of the environment;
- The Gini coefficient , which studies the balance (or lack thereof) in the distribution of wealth in a given country ;
- The Gross Domestic Product . While some people believe that a nation's production is one of the most significant metrics, analysis of the above may show that it is not accurate.
It is necessary to point out that these indicators have various shortcomings, such as that they do not take into account the distribution of income or the subjective assessments that derive from different cultural systems. With respect to this last point, it is important to highlight that an attempt should not be made to measure the standard of living of a country paying attention exclusively to the economic level, but that to reach a representative conclusion of reality it is essential to take into account other aspects, both social as demographic.