More than 25 years have now passed since the idea of a regular social reporting about the effects of political programmes was first introduced, i.e. a System of Social Accounts (SSA) that was to supplement the System of National Accounts (SNA). The SNA could not provide answers to vital social questions pertaining to those parts of our living conditions that could not be evaluated in economic terms and consequently were not covered by the System of National Accounts, nor to questions of how welfare and living conditions differed in various population groups.