Key National Indicators Initiative

Economic and social indicators provide a way for modern societies to measure progress, identify problems, and evaluate policies. Although the United States pioneered the development of macroeconomic indicators, our measures of health, education, environmental quality and social well-being are less well developed.

With this in mind, the National Academies have launched the Key National Indicators Initiative (KNII). This web-based project will disseminate social indicators on the state of the nation, under categories of the economy, the environment, and people (which includes families, health, education, civic engagement and culture). A diverse group of representatives will meet regularly to develop content for the website, disseminate updates on developments with the KNII, and monitor the expansion of indicators.

With support from the Foundation, Dr. Jane Ross will convene two workshops to launch the development of the KNII. The first workshop will examine which indicators appear most useful, review indicators already assembled, and assess effectiveness of the collaboration process in developing indicators. The product of the workshop will be a summary of principles and practices to guide the future development of indicators for the KNII.

The second workshop will bring together people who use and produce indicator systems in their daily work to consider how to assess the quality of indicators, especially those in the early stages of development. They will create guidelines for evaluating the accuracy, timeliness, transparency, comparability, and accessibility of different indicators.