What do we mean by quality of life? It is difficult to provide a straightforward answer: it is a multifaceted concept, and therefore affects many aspects of our daily lives. It is abstract, and so is difficult to measure, and it is subjective, in other words linked to one’s personal scale of values.
Our monitoring programme proposes the creation of a general index of quality of life, starting from objective data from natural and institutional sources.
The use of a quantitative method that has the city of Milan as its permanent point of reference makes it possible to conduct a continual comparison of data both in time and space: the annual nature of the investigation has in fact led to the creation of a long year-by-year historical dataset spanning the years 1989 to 2010: this enables the investigation of developments, improvements, deterioration and variation of the quality of life in Milan.

To facilitate the analysis, data are divided into 15 thematic areas: Population, Environment, Work, Health, Poverty, Community Safety, Economic well-being, Accommodation, Education, Mobility, Care Services, Public Services, Service Sector, Culture and Recreation, and Sport, and each area involves an in-depth analysis of an aspect of quality of life that is believed to be significant. The data are processed and summarized in the index pertaining to the particular field and in the general index. The data analysis involves particular attention to any variations with respect to previous years. It is also facilitated by the presence of graphs that trace the evolution both of particular areas and of the overall situation.
All this enables us to ensure direct continuous contact with the city, to draw up an exhaustive picture of the Milanese situation and to investigate how the quality of life develops over time.