DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.30740435.v2
title: OECD Social Expenditure, World Happiness Index and Human Development Index, 2010–2024 (OECD Countries)

description: This dataset provides a country–year panel for OECD countries covering the period 2010–2024. It combines annual data on public, private and total social expenditure as a share of GDP with the World Happiness Index (WHI) and the Human Development Index (HDI).The data are constructed to analyze the relationships between social spending, subjective well-being and human development in OECD countries. The panel structure (one observation per country per year) makes the dataset suitable for descriptive analysis as well as regression-based empirical research.<b>Contents</b>The main Excel file contains a single data sheet:<b>Sheet: </b><code><strong>data_set</strong></code><br>Each row corresponds to a specific country–year observation for an OECD member state.Variables:<code>Country</code>: Country name (OECD member; e.g., “Australia”, “Türkiye”, “United States”).<code>iso3</code>: ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (e.g., “AUS”, “TUR”, “USA”).<code>year</code>: Calendar year (2010–2024).<code>pub_socexp_gdp</code>: Public social expenditure as a percentage of GDP (%).<code>priv_socexp_gdp</code>: Private (mandatory and voluntary) social expenditure as a percentage of GDP (%).<code>tot_socexp_gdp</code>: Total social expenditure (public + private) as a percentage of GDP (%).<code>WHI</code>: World Happiness Index; average national happiness score on a 0–10 scale based on the Cantril ladder question.<code>HDI</code>: Human Development Index; composite index of three basic dimensions of human development (health, education, and standard of living).<code>income_group</code>: Binary country income group indicator used in the analysis. High‑income OECD countries are coded as <code>1</code> (“High”), and all other OECD members (upper‑middle, lower‑middle and low income) are coded as <code>0</code> (“NonHigh”). Income groups were constructed using data from the OECD Data Explorer (2024) and the World Bank country income classification for 2024, based on PPP (purchasing power parity) income thresholds.Empty cells indicate that data for the corresponding country–year observation are not available in the original sources or were not included in the analytical sample due to missingness.<b>Data sources</b><b>Social expenditure (pub_socexp_gdp, priv_socexp_gdp, tot_socexp_gdp)</b><br>Data are taken from the OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX). SOCX provides reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at the program level for 38 OECD countries (and some accession countries), with coverage from 1980 and estimates for more recent years.<br>Reference: OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX), https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/social-expenditure-database-socx.html.<b>World Happiness Index (WHI)</b><br>Happiness data are drawn from the World Happiness Report, accessed via HumanProgress.org (World Happiness Report section). The index is based on average national values for answers to the Cantril ladder question, which asks respondents to evaluate their current life on a 0–10 scale, with the worst possible life as 0 and the best possible life as 10.<br>Reference: World Happiness Report; HumanProgress.org, https://humanprogress.org.<b>Human Development Index (HDI)</b><br>HDI data are drawn from the Human Development Index series compiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), accessed via HumanProgress.org (Human Development Index section). The HDI measures three basic dimensions of human development: life expectancy at birth; an education component (adult literacy rate and school enrollment); and GDP per capita (purchasing power parity, PPP, in U.S. dollars), combined into a composite index.<br>Reference: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Reports; HumanProgress.org, https://humanprogress.org.<b>Data construction and coverage</b>The dataset is restricted to OECD member countries and the years 2010–2024.WHI and HDI series are matched to OECD social expenditure data using ISO3 country codes and calendar years.In addition, a binary income group variable (<code>income_group</code>) was created to distinguish high‑income OECD countries from other OECD members, using the World Bank’s 2024 income thresholds (PPP‑based) and country information from the OECD Data Explorer (2024).Some country–year combinations, particularly in later years (e.g., 2022–2024), contain missing values where the original sources do not provide data or only provide partial estimates. These are retained as empty cells.The empirical analyses in the associated study are conducted on subsets of the data restricted to complete cases for the relevant variables.Researchers can use this dataset to replicate the results of the associated study or to conduct additional analyses on the links between social expenditure, happiness and human development within the OECD context.If you use this dataset, please cite both this data file and the original data providers (OECD, World Happiness Report, UNDP, and HumanProgress.org).