Personal Safety as an Indicator of Living Standards

Abstract

The problem domain of the research covers the consideration and analysis of the personal safety assurance of citizens of contemporary Kazakhstan society. The current work is aimed at revealing, studying and theoretical conceptualization of information on personal safety as an indicator of population living standards. To achieve the goal of the research the following common scientific methods were used: analysis and synthesis, methods of comparison, functional and logical analysis, and methods of applied researches. The work presents the retrospective analysis of the “personal safety” notion, systematizes the existing approaches to the investigation of the essence that allowed revealing its main components. The work considers personal safety as one of the basic needs of humans that affects the population living standards. Within this context, the existing methods of population living standards assessment considering the personal safety factors were analyzed. Basing on the considered methods and research results of the international organizations, the comparative analysis of indicators related to personal safety in Kazakhstan and OECD countries was conducted on different indexes. The conducted comparisons allowed providing some assessment of the personal safety state of Kazakhstan citizens. Also, using the method of the linear combination of particular indicators to the integrated indicator the authors have calculated the indicator of economic safety of the population for the Almaty region that covers the personal safety indicators. The authors show the advantages and disadvantages of the applied method and provide recommendations on its application at different levels. The conclusions of the research can be taken as a base for an in-depth study on measuring the indicators of population personal safety in the context of living standards assurance.