African American couple walking hand in hand along the street in Washington DC

Advances in information technology, computation, and statistics now make it possible to access, integrate, and analyze massive amounts of data over time and space allowing for a more comprehensive approach to measuring national well-being. Societal progress is about improvements in the well-being of people and households across the nation and is influenced by the strength of our national systems from food to defense to technology.
 

Evaluating progress requires an integrated data-driven approach to assess the functioning of the economy as well as the living conditions and variety of experiences that people face individually and collectively. Today, it is possible to make better use of existing data to provide evidence to improve decisions, policies and operations of our national programs, and to measure the effects on our quality-of-life as a population.