National approaches to developing social indicators

The basis for selecting social indicators in ten national publications released to date are primarily measures of welfare and measures reflecting public policy and social concerns. The orientation of the volumes from the U.S., France, Canada, Norway, Philippines, Malaysia, Great Britain are discussed. The selection of time series that reflect social processes is proposed and an orientation presented around the concepts of the vital processes, socialization and participation, mobility and stratification, maintaining security, and control and coordination by which social order is attained. A bibliography identifies the national reports known to the author.