standard of living

standard of living, in social science, the aspirations of an individual or group for goods and services. Alternatively, the term is applied specifically to a measure of the consumption of goods and services by an individual or group, sometimes called “level of living” (what is) as opposed to “standard” (what is desired). Both include privately purchased items as well as items that lead to an increased sense of well-being but are not under the individual’s direct control, such as publicly provided services and the quality of the environment.

Some social scientists maintain that a person’s desired standard of living is strongly influenced by the consumption patterns of his or her income peers. Because of this, an individual’s standard of living may be expected to change as income changes.

Difficulties accompany any comparison of living standards between population groups or countries. Care must be taken to distinguish between the average value of some measure of actual consumption and the dispersion around that average. If, for example, the average value increases over time, but at the same time the rich become richer and the poor poorer, it may be incorrect to conclude that the group is collectively better off. Accordingly, it can be difficult to compare standards of living between countries that exhibit widely differing degrees of dispersion. In practice there are wide disparities both within countries and between countries. By most criteria, the differences in living standards between developed and less-developed countries are more acute than the differences that exist between countries with developed economies.

These problems occur regardless of what quantitative indicators are chosen to measure the standard of living. Apart from income, useful indicators may include the consumption of certain foodstuffs such as protein, a measure of life expectancy, and access to basic amenities such as a safe water supply. These indexes, however, involve serious problems of comparability between countries and regions, especially since even the most basic data, such as reliable population estimates, may be unavailable for some very poor countries.

Monetary measures of living standards tend to omit important aspects of life (e.g., nutrition, life expectancy) that cannot be bought or sold. Other difficulties accompany the use of monetary indicators. For example, the items that are measurable in monetary terms may have been valued at distorted prices. International comparisons using official exchange rates can be misleading, particularly where the foreign exchange market is manipulated by governments. Comparisons over time need to be adjusted for variations in price levels, but this is not always a simple matter, especially given differences in inflation rates between countries. If the relative prices of various goods and services differ substantially between two countries, it is particularly difficult to make a fair comparison of standards of living when they are based on consumption levels.