From 2009 Statistics Norway has decided to no longer publish new data for the Index for living condition problems and sub-indices for individual indicators. The reason is that the index has methodological weaknesses.
Due to great interest in the index from the government of health, municipalities and the media, Statistics Norway conducted a methodical evaluation of the index in 2009. The methodological evaluation uncovered challenges related to the index and its ranked lists of municipalities and districts. The challenges were documented and mediated to users of the index.
It was discovered that by changing the method of weighting, municipalities and districts located in the mid-range changed rank by as much as 100 places. In other words, the municipalities and city-districts not among the 20-30 best or worst in a ranking will experience that only a small change in the value of one of the individual indicators, which together constitute the index, will cause a dramatic difference in how the municipality/district will be ranked in relation to other municipalities and districts.
Published 07 January 2011 © Statistics Norway