Prices of essentials like energy and food have increased dramatically in OECD countries, adding uncertainty to household finances despite a persistently strong labour market post COVID-19. The latest edition of the OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) survey confirms that costs of living are at the top of people’s minds even in the world’s wealthiest countries: around nine in ten respondents, on average, report feeling concerned about inflation.
Prices of essentials like energy and food have increased dramatically in OECD countries, adding uncertainty to household finances despite a persistently strong labour market post COVID-19. The latest edition of the OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) survey confirms that costs of living are at the top of people's minds even in the world's wealthiest countries: around nine in ten respondents, on average, report feeling concerned about inflation. Drawing on a representative sample of 27 000 respondents across 27 OECD countries, RTM illustrates respondents' perceived economic risks, levels of satisfaction with current social policies, and preferences for future government action on social protection. People are calling on governments to help with the cost-of-living crisis, to spend more on health post COVID-19, and to reinforce support for older people, including in long-term care. Based on a comprehensive cross-national survey of perceptions of social protection, this report offers lessons for the functioning of social programmes as countries emerge from COVID-19, manage the cost-of-living crisis, and plan for future challenges.
Prices of essentials like energy and food have increased dramatically in OECD countries, adding uncertainty to household finances despite a persistently strong labour market post COVID-19. The latest edition of the OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) survey confirms that costs of living are at the top of people's minds even in the world's wealthiest countries: around nine in ten respondents, on average, report feeling concerned about inflation. Drawing on a representative sample of 27 000 respondents across 27 OECD countries, RTM illustrates respondents' perceived economic risks, levels of satisfaction with current social policies, and preferences for future government action on social protection. People are calling on governments to help with the cost-of-living crisis, to spend more on health post COVID-19, and to reinforce support for older people, including in long-term care. Based on a comprehensive cross-national survey of perceptions of social protection, this report offers lessons for the functioning of social programmes as countries emerge from COVID-19, manage the cost-of-living crisis, and plan for future challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred perhaps the largest expansion of social protection systems in seventy years. Yet many people are still deeply affected by the crisis and are calling for even more help. Drawing on 25 000 responses across 25 OECD countries, the 2020 Risks that Matter survey finds that people are worried about keeping their jobs, paying the bills and staying healthy.
What drives trust in government? This report presents the main findings of the first OECD cross-national survey on trust in government and public institutions, representing over 50 000 responses across 22 OECD countries. The survey measures government performance across five drivers of trust – reliability, responsiveness, integrity, openness, and fairness – and provides insights for future policy reforms.
Understanding Health Systems and Welfare explores the ways in which we understand health care systems and recommends how individuals, health care providers and society as a whole can best use the resources within the systems for maximum benefit. In this enlightening book, Bent Greve examines health care systems from a multitude of perspectives, considering factors such as demographic changes, the steering of health care systems, the value of preventative measures and the challenges and opportunities presented by technological developments.
Despite having advanced social protection systems, OECD countries still face challenges in identifying, enrolling, and providing benefits and services to all those in need. Even when programmes are well-designed and adequately funded, cumbersome enrolment processes and challenges in service and benefit delivery can be an obstacle to the full take-up of social programmes. Advances in digital technologies and data can go a long way towards making social protection more accessible and effective. This report presents a stocktaking of OECD governments’ strategies to identify individuals and groups in need, collect and link (potential) beneficiary data across administrative and survey sources, and apply data analytics and new technologies to improve programme enrolment and the benefit/service delivery experience – all with the objective of reaching people in need of support in OECD countries.
Using original data collected from governments around the globe, the Consumer Finance Risk Monitor analyses the constantly evolving issues and risks facing consumers of financial products and services.
With population ageing, the demand for helping older people with daily activities – so-called long-term care – is set to increase across OECD countries by more than one-third by 2050. Older people with long-term care needs are more likely to be women, 80-years-old and above, live in single households, and have lower incomes than the average. Currently, across OECD countries, publicly funded long-term care systems still leave almost half of older people with care needs at risk of poverty, particularly those with severe care needs and low income. Out-of-pocket costs represent, on average, 70% of an older person’s median income across the OECD. This report suggests avenues to improve funding to make long-term care systems better able to meet the demand for their services, and suggests policy options to improve the targeting of benefits and seek efficiency gains to contain the costs of long-term care.
As governments grapple with environmental and digital transitions and an erosion of trust in public institutions, bold action is needed to build people’s trust and strengthen democracy. To this end, the OECD launched its Reinforcing Democracy Initiative in 2022. This report offers an overview of collective progress made in OECD countries across the five pillars of the Initiative and their respective action plans: combatting mis‐ and disinformation; enhancing participation, representation, and openness in public life, including a focus on gender equality; stronger open democracies in a globalised world; governing green; and digital democracy. In each of these areas, the report provides recent cross‐country indicators of progress (when available) and highlights best practices from countries. The report draws on OECD and other data to assess progress, including the 2024 results of the OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions. It also identifies gaps in action and points to a set of common priorities for moving forward together.
