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Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (232/07) issued by The Government News Network on 27 July 2007

A free pocket-sized booklet published by Defra today provides an overview of the country's progress in tackling key economic, social and environmental issues.

The 68 indicators it contains - covering a wide range of topics of everyday concern such as health, housing, jobs, crime, education, and our environment - all affect whether we can live more sustainably in the future. For the first time this edition includes some provisional measures of wellbeing which show how satisfied people are with their lives. (See the separate statistical release also issued by Defra today.)

Individually these 'sustainable development' indicators highlight those issues for which recent and longer-term change has been for the better or for the worse. Collectively they can provide an overview of progress, overall and for four priority areas:

* Sustainable consumption and production
* Climate change and energy
* Natural resource protection and environmental enhancement
* Creating sustainable communities

as set out in the UK Government's Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future.

The aim of this booklet is to make the indicators easily accessible to a wide audience and to enable everyone to judge where progress is being made and where the challenges are. It should be a useful reference to experts but also to others less familiar with the concept of sustainable development or indicators. Around 60,000 copies of the booklet are distributed annually and are particularly popular with schools and colleges.

Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007 is a Defra National Statistics compendium publication, which has drawn on indicators and other National Statistics from across Government.

Key results

The 68 indicators comprise 127 measures and using these it is possible to get an overview of change compared with earlier years, based on the number of measures showing improvement, little change or deterioration. However it is essential to look at the individual indicators too as this does not take account of the relative importance of particular indicators.

Based on 101 of 127 measures, comprising the 68 indicators
(see notes)

Compared with the position in 1999, 50 measures show improvement (representing over half of those for which it is possible to make an assessment), and 11 show a deterioration.

A wide range of measures show improvement including:

* renewable electricity
* emissions of air pollutants
* manufacturing, service and public sector emissions
* waste recycling
* agricultural emissions and land stewardship
* biodiversity loss
* river water quality
* land recycling for development
* community participation
* vehicle crime and burglary
* fear of crime
* various poverty measures
* death rates from circulatory disease, cancer and suicides
* people killed or seriously injured in road accidents
* housing conditions, fuel poverty and rough sleepers
* local environmental quality.

The eleven measures showing deterioration since 1999 are specifically:

* aviation emissions of greenhouse gases
* fossil fuels used in electricity generation
* nitrogen oxide emissions from electricity generation
* energy supply (consumption exceeding UK production)
* water loss through leakages
* robbery
* differences in life expectancy between local authorities
* childhood obesity
* walking and cycling
* ozone pollution in urban areas
* households living in temporary accommodation

Summaries for priority areas

The indicators can be grouped, in a similar way, to provide an overview for the four priority areas, though there is some overlap in the messages where some indicators support more than one of the priority areas.

Sustainable consumption and production

Indicators for sustainable consumption and production mainly cover emissions, resource use and waste.

Based on 30 of 49 measures,
comprising 25 indicators
(see notes)

Nineteen measures (over half) show improvement compared with 1999. Those showing improvement include emissions of air pollutants from the manufacturing, service and public sectors, waste recycling, agricultural emissions, and land recycling.

Measures showing deterioration since 1999 are greenhouse gases from aviation and water leakage.

Climate change and energy

Indicators for climate change and energy mainly cover greenhouse gas emissions, electricity generation and energy supply.

Based on 14 of 23 measures,
comprising 14 indicators
(see notes)

Six measures show improvement since 1999 and four show deterioration.

Those showing improvement since 1999 include renewable electricity, sulphur dioxide emissions from electricity generation, carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing and the public sector, and methane emissions from agriculture.

Those showing deterioration are aviation emissions of greenhouse gases, energy supply, fossil fuels used in electricity generation and nitrogen oxide emissions from electricity generation.

Natural resource protection and enhancing the environment

Indicators for natural resource protection mainly cover wildlife and biodiversity, farming, land use, fish stocks, air pollution and rivers.

Based on 24 of 29 measures, comprising 16 indicators
(see notes)

Sixteen measures show improvement since 1999 and none deterioration.

Those showing improvement since 1999 include biodiversity loss, fish stocks, river water quality, farming management and emissions, land recycling, air pollution, and the impact of acidification from air pollution. Bird populations and area of sensitive habitats affected by nitrogen showed little change.

Compared with 1990, farmland bird populations show a decline.

Creating sustainable communities and a fairer world

Indicators for creating sustainable communities mainly cover poverty, health, crime, access, mobility, and local and domestic environments.

Based on 52 of 68 measures, comprising 39 indicators
(see notes)

Twenty-two measures show improvement since 1999, eighteen show little or no change, and six show deterioration.

Those showing improvement include poverty and housing conditions, rough sleepers, local environment quality, community participation, vehicle crimes, burglary, fear of crime, mortality rates, and road accidents.

Those showing deterioration are robbery, the difference in life expectancy between local authority areas, the number of households in temporary accommodation, child obesity, walking and cycling, and ozone pollution in urban areas.

UK Framework Indicators

Twenty of the indicators are also 'UK Framework indicators' covering key impacts and outcomes that reflect the priority areas shared by the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

These include:

Greenhouse gas emissions: emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, were about 5 per cent lower than in 1990. Emissions increased by about 1.2 per cent between 2005 and 2006, owing to an increase in energy consumption combined with increased use of coal in electricity generation.

River water quality: between 1990 and 2005 the percentage of rivers of good biological quality in England rose from 60 to 71 per cent and in 2005, 56 per cent of rivers in Northern Ireland and 80 per cent of rivers in Wales were of good biological quality. In 2005, 64 per cent of English rivers were of good chemical quality (up from 43 per cent in 1990), this figure was 63 per cent in Northern Ireland (up from 44 per cent in 1991). In all years since 1993 over 90 per cent of rivers in Wales have been of good chemical quality. In Scotland, the percentage of rivers of good quality has remained stable at around 87 per cent between 2000 and 2005, based on a combined chemical, biological and aesthetic assessment.

Bird populations: Farmland bird populations fell by 42 per cent between 1970 and 1993, but remained fairly stable thereafter. Woodland bird populations in 2005 were about 20 per cent lower than the peak of the early 1970s but remained fairly stable from 1991. The UK's breeding coastal bird populations increased between 1970 and 1987 by 37 per cent and have remained stable since then.

Crime: In England and Wales, from the British Crime Survey (BCS), vehicle thefts fell by 56 per cent and burglary fell by 47 per cent between 1991 and 2006-7. Of the crimes recorded by the police, vehicle crime fell by 46 per cent, and burglary in dwellings fell by 45 per cent between 1990 and 2006-7. The number of robberies recorded by the police increased from 36,195 in 1990 to 103,370 in 2006-7. However, trends in crime have been influenced by counting rule changes in both 1998 and 2002, all of which have tended to increase the number of crimes recorded. Recorded burglary increased in Northern Ireland between 1990 and 2006-7 by 4 per cent while recorded vehicle theft and robbery decreased by 45 and 3 per cent respectively over this period.

Health inequality: In 1991-3 the difference in average life expectancy for men between local authority areas in the UK with the highest and lowest average life expectancy was 9.7 years. This widened to 12.3 years in 2003-5. For women the difference was 7.5 years in 1991-3 and widened to 9.5 years in 2003-5.

Environmental equality: For the first time some preliminary analysis is presented on environmental equality which provides evidence on the extent to which people live in areas with multiple environmental conditions that are in relative terms 'least favourable'. This analysis has so far only been undertaken for England and needs to be further developed.

International data

Some international data have been compiled to enable some comparisons to be made for the UK and other countries for some of issues covered by the national indicators. International data are available for 32 of the 68 national indicators, and cover of 45 individual measures. The data are presented on the UK Government sustainable development website (see notes.)

International data are presented for the UK and twelve other countries: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Japan, Australia and the United States of America. However owing to data availability not all countries are included in every international measure. The choice of countries was partly driven by data availability but also assumptions about comparative levels of development.

It should be noted that the international data have been used as provided by the originating organisation (for example Eurostat for the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), and others) and reliance has been placed upon these organisations' efforts to ensure that the data are as comparable as possible. Defra statisticians are not responsible for reliability or comparability of the international.

International data are in many cases much older than data available nationally. So the position in the UK and other countries may well have changed compared with the situation presented by the international data.

International comparisons should be always treated with extreme caution as definitions and measurement methods differ between countries (despite considerable efforts by Eurostat and OECD in particular, to ensure consistency in coverage between countries).

The measures presented are the nearest available international equivalent measure to that included in the national indicators. However definitions and coverage may different from the national measure.

An attempt has been made to summarise the international data and to do so a number of criteria have been applied:

(i) Data should be available for the UK and all the 12 other selected countries.
(ii) For assessing the position for the latest year, data should be available for 2002 or later.
(iii) For assessing the recent change, data need to be available for the mid to late 1990s and for 2002 or later.

Applying these criteria, for only 17 of the 45 measures for which there are international data are there data for 2002 or later for the UK and all 12 other countries.

Similarly for only 12 of the 45 measures are there sufficient data to assess progress from a year in the mid to late 1990s to 2002 or later.

Summaries are presented below based on the measures that meet the criteria. The measures that are included do cover issues across all the UK Government's priority areas for Sustainable Development, but they are inevitably extremely limited in the extent to which they present a representative summary of the UK's or any other country's progress towards sustainable development.

UK's position compared with 12 other countries in latest available year *

* Out of 17 measures for which data were available for the UK and the 12 other selected countries for 2002 or later, 3 measures showed the UK positioned as one of the 4 countries with the most favourable conditions. These measures were: energy consumption, water abstractions, and road fatalities. The UK's highest position was 2nd, for water abstractions.

* For 7 measures the UK was positioned as one of the bottom 4 countries, with the least favourable conditions. These were: carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, renewable energy production, infant deaths per 1,000 live births, average life expectancy, deaths from cardio-vascular disease and cancer, and incidences of obesity. Of these measures the UK was positioned 13th for renewable energy production and 12th for incidences of obesity.

* For the remaining 7 measures the UK was in the middle range (5th to 9th position) in relative terms. These measures were greenhouse gas emissions, threatened bird species, protected land, gross domestic product per capita, fishery products landed per capita, and percentage of adults with tertiary (higher) level education qualifications.

Change since mid to late 1990s for the UK and 12 other countries

* For the 12 measures for which assessment of progress could be made for change from the mid to late 1990s to 2002 or later, the UK showed an improvement for 7 measures (58 per cent). These were greenhouse gas emissions, fishery products landed per capita, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, social expenditure as a proportion of GDP, adults with tertiary (higher) education qualifications, infant deaths per 1,000 live births, and road fatalities.

* Both the United States of America and Denmark showed an improvement for 8 measures (67 per cent). Canada had the fewest measures showing improvement with 4 (33 per cent).

* The UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Canada had none of the 12 measures showing deterioration, and none of the remaining countries had more two measures showing deterioration. The measures showing improvement, little or no change, or deterioration were not necessarily the same for each country.

* The 5 measures (48 per cent) showing little or no change in the UK were carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, renewable energy production, energy use per capita, protected land area, and average life expectancy.

* These assessments of change do not take account of the different baselines for each country, only the extent to which a change has occurred relative to the individual country's status in the mid to late 1990s.

Notes to editors

1. The publication is a Defra National Statistics compendium publication, which has drawn on indicators and other National Statistics from across Government. Free copies of Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007 are available from Defra Publications, Admail 6000, London, SW1A 2XX (tel: 08459 556000, e-mail: defra@cambertown.com), quote product codes PB12683 (A6 size) or PB12683A (A4 size). The publication and associated data will be also presented on the sustainable development website: http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk.

2. For the indicator pie-chart summaries a number of indicators support more than one priority area, so there is some overlap in the messages the summaries convey. Indicator measures do not contribute to the summaries if (a) they are used in another indicator and are already counted within the same summary; (b) their trends are strongly influenced by or directly reflect other measures within the same summary; or (c) they are for contextual purposes. For more details see the sustainable development website.

3. The measures of wellbeing currently presented in the publication are provisional and include:
* Selected existing sustainable development indicators.
* Some related measures to support existing sustainable development indicators.
* New survey results on life satisfaction, which in due course may be developed into measures of wellbeing.
* Measures of participation in sport and culture, access to green space, and an outline for a proposed measure of positive mental wellbeing.
See the separate Defra statistical release on life satisfaction also issued today.

4. The international data presented are not National Statistics, but have been provided for illustrative purposes, and as a first attempt to show the UK's progress in an international context. Defra statisticians are not responsible for the reliability or comparability of the international data used. The number of measures for which it was possible to make assessments for the UK and the 12 other selected countries consistently is very small compared with the number of measures in the national set of indicators. The international summaries presented are therefore very limited and should be treated with caution. They should not be regarded as representative of the UK's or any other country's progress towards sustainable development.

National Statistics publication
National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.

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