Assessing the quality of life in French municipalities: a multidimensional approach

Quality of life and well-being is a topic of major importance for public policy making and urban planning decisions. However, these concepts entail complex multiple socio-economic aspects, and are ill-defined. Quantitative assessments of quality of life based on composite indicators have become quite popular in academic research and practice. This study presents the application of an approach that combines ideas from multiple criteria decision making and efficiency analysis to the assessment of quality of life at the municipality level. A dataset involving French municipalities in 2012 is used for the analysis based on a rich set of key performance indicators that cover different aspects of quality of life conditions for citizens. The relationship of quality of life performance with the financial strength of the municipalities is also explored.