Quality of Life vs. Standard of Living
Social Studies 10
Standard of living and quality of life are often referred to in discussions about the
economic and social well-being of countries and their residents. But what is the
difference between the two? The definitions of these terms can be difficult to tease apart
and may overlap in some areas, depending on whom you ask. But the difference
between the two is more than just semantics; in fact, knowing the difference between
the two can affect how you evaluate a country where you might be looking to invest.
Standard of Living
Standard of living generally refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods and
necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. An
evaluation of standard of living commonly includes the following factors:
! income
! quality and availability of
employment
! class disparity
! poverty rate
! quality and affordability of
housing (For related reading, see
Mortgages: How Much Can You
Afford?)
! hours of work required to
purchase necessities
! gross domestic product (GDP)
(For more insight, see Don't Be
Misled By Gross National
Product.)
! inflation rate (See our Inflation
tutorial for more.)
! number of paid vacation days per
year
! affordable access to quality
healthcare
! quality and availability of
education
! life expectancy
! incidence of disease
! cost of goods and services
! infrastructure
! national economic growth
! economic and political stability
! political and religious freedom
! environmental quality
! climate
! safety
When you think about standard of living, you can think about things that are easy to
quantify. We can measure factors like life expectancy, inflation rate and the average
number of paid vacation days workers receive each year.
Standard of living is often used to compare geographic areas, such as the standard of
living in the United States versus Canada, or the standard of living in Milwaukee versus
New York City. If you live in a particular country, a certain number of vacation days per
year will be the norm. In the United States, it's 10 to 20 days - in Denmark it's 31. Some
companies within each country may be more or less generous, but one practice prevails.
