The Beyond-GDP movement has produced sophisticated frameworks for measuring national progress, yet no systematic assessment has examined whether these frameworks adequately capture social services – the interventions through which welfare states improve citizens’ lives. This working paper addresses that gap through a meta-analysis of 66 Beyond-GDP indicators between 1972 and 2023, examining whether the frameworks adequately capture social services. 

What has come to be known as the Beyond-GDP movement emerged in the 1970s through early quality-of-life indices and pioneering attempts to adjust national accounts for environmental degradation and social costs. 

The findings reveal a fundamental asymmetry in measurement development. Health, knowledge and skills, material wellbeing, work and job quality, and economic security demonstrate comprehensive coverage reflecting decades of methodological investment. Care services, by contrast, appear in only 17% of indicators. This represents the most severe measurement gap identified, confirming that care for children, persons with disabilities, and elderly individuals remains largely invisible in progress measurement. Service integration and prevention prove similarly neglected.

This systematic neglect of social service dimensions within Beyond-GDP measurement carries substantial consequences for policy and practice. Analysis reveals these gaps are structural rather than incidental. The findings establish that Beyond-GDP measurement, despite substantial conceptual progress, inadequately captures dimensions central to welfare state investment, providing an evidence base for developing more comprehensive social service evaluation frameworks.