what is standard of living 
standard of living refers to the quantity and quality of material goods and services available to a given population understanding standard of livingstandard of living focuses on basic material factors such as income gross domestic product gdp life expectancy and economic opportunity it is closely related to quality of life which can also explore factors such as economic and political stability political and religious freedom environmental quality climate and safety standard of living is often used to compare geographic areas such as the standard of living in the united states versus canada or the standard of living in st louis versus new york standard of living can also be used to compare distinct points in time for example compared with a century ago the standard of living in the united states has improved greatly the same amount of work buys an increased quantity of goods and items that were once luxuries such as refrigerators and automobiles are now widely available moreover life expectancy has increased and annual hours worked have decreased 23in a narrow sense economists frequently measure standard of living using gdp per capita gdp provides a quick rough estimate of the total amount of goods and services available per person while numerous more complex and nuanced metrics of standard of living have been devised many of them correlate highly with per capita gdp standard of living is generally measured using per capita gdp standards of living are usually higher in developed countries in fact basic measures of standard of living such as per capita gdp are often used to define the differences between more and less developed countries emerging market economies usually see rising standards of living over time as they grow and develop into modern industrialized economies standard of living exampleone measure of standard of living is the united nations human development index hdi which scores 189 countries based on factors including life expectancy at birth education and income per capita as of 2019 the countries with the five highest hdi scores are norway 0 957 ireland and switzerland 0 955 hong kong and iceland 0 949 and germany 0 947 4conversely the countries with the five lowest 2019 hdi scores are niger 0 394 central african republic 0 397 chad 0 398 burundi and south sudan 0 433 and mali 0 434 the united states came in at 17 while china was 85 4to exemplify the difference between the scores of 0 957 and 0 394 norway has a life expectancy at birth of 82 4 years 18 1 expected years of schooling per citizen gross national income gni per capita of 66 494 purchasing power parity adjusted currency units and an internet usage rate of 96 5 of its population 5 niger meanwhile has a life expectancy at birth of 62 4 years 6 5 expected years of schooling a gni per capita of 1 201 and an internet usage rate of 5 3 6the u s scored seventeenth on the list with a combined score of 0 926 a life expectancy at birth of 78 9 years 16 3 expected years of schooling and gni per capita of 63 826 7standard of living vs quality of lifethe terms standard of living and quality of life are often believed to mean the same while they may overlap there is a difference between the two standard of living generally refers to wealth comfort material goods and necessities of certain classes in certain areas or more objectively measures of income and consumption quality of life is more subjective and intangible this happiness economic metric includes such things that impact human well being items such as personal liberty or environmental quality are considered characteristics that make up a good quality of life for one person may not necessarily be the same for someone else 