Quality of Life in Gauteng

Quality of life is a measure that moves beyond the idea of ‘standard of living’ and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicators, which are typically closely tied to income, and attempts to get a broader sense of well-being that takes both basic needs and psycho social components into account. GCRO’s Quality of Life index draws on 58 indicators from a range of questions measuring objective circumstances and subjective opinions. Indicators are grouped into 10 dimensions (each has a maximum score of 1). The dimension scores are added together to give a total Quality of Life score out of 10.

The first figure below shows the different dimensions of the QoL Index. The second figure below illustrates a key relationship: respondents who have a low quality of life score are more likely to express dissatisfaction with local government.