Indices and methodology

Monitoring Intergenerational Fairness in the EU

The Intergenerational Fairness Indices

Intergenerational fairness is monitored across four dimensions, measured through six composite indicators. Economic and Social Fairness are computed separately for young and old people, so that the evolution of opportunities can be compared between age groups. Environmental Fairness and Societal Resilience are common to all age groups, because they capture shared conditions that each generation passes on to the next.

In each index, individual indicators are aggregated into thematic policy areas, which are then combined into a single score from 0 to 100 (maximum performance). The four dimensions are:

1. Economic Fairness: income, housing and labour market conditions. For young people, the policy areas are labour market participation, economic mobility and housing; for old people, employment, income level, housing cost, and housing adequacy and quality.
2. Social Fairness: skills, social participation and health. For young people, the six policy areas are education and skills, child and youth foundations, social protection and material conditions, participation, physical health and services, and living environment and mental health.
3. Environmental Fairness: emissions and energy, circular economy, health and wellbeing, and nature and biodiversity.
4. Societal Resilience: fiscal sustainability; wealth, income and employment; participation and institutions; and demographics.

For each index, users can follow the scores of a selected country over time against the EU average, compare the latest scores of all Member States on a map and ranking, and decompose each score into its policy areas and underlying indicators.

Scope and methodology

The full methodology of the monitoring tool, including its conceptual framework, data sources and calculation approach, can be downloaded from the platform. A set of frequently asked questions explains how to interpret the index and policy area scores, why several indices are needed, why the tool focuses on young and old people, and why the Environmental Fairness and Societal Resilience indices do not distinguish between age groups.

The methodology also documents the data gaps encountered in building the tool, notably the limited availability of EU-wide data disaggregated by age in combination with sex and income, and the scarcity of comparable data on children's wellbeing, the mental health of young people and long-term care. These gaps point to priorities for future data collection.