Measuring progress: Sustainable development indicators 2010

Measuring progress: Sustainable development indicators 2010, published by Defra today, brings together an extensive range of economic, social and environmental indicators to provide a statistical overview of the country’s progress on sustainable development.

The report covers a wide range of topics of everyday concern such as health, housing, jobs, crime, education, and our environment, all of which may affect whether we can live more sustainably in the future. It includes measures of wellbeing, how people rate their lives and how satisfied they are with aspects that may affect them.

This compendium publication draws on indicators and national statistics from across Government. Almost all have been updated since the report’s predecessor publication Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2009.

The publication aims to make indicators easily accessible to a wide audience and to enable everyone to judge where change, for better or worse, is occurring and where the challenges are. It should be a useful reference to experts and to those less familiar with the concept of sustainable development or indicators.

The 68 indicators aim to provide an overview of progress across four themes. Summaries are provided below for the whole set of indicators and by theme:

• Sustainable consumption and production
• Climate change and energy
• Protecting natural resources and enhancing the environment
• Creating sustainable communities

The indicator presentations are intended to be simple to understand but there is also a methodology chapter at the back and the data behind the assessments are available via the ‘reviewing progress’ web-pages:
www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/progress
This Defra National Statistics publication aims to be a useful and accessible reference for experts, to help illustrate the breadth and challenges of sustainable development to those less familiar with the concept, and to encourage readers to find out more.