The World Love Index

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the World Love Index, presenting it as an innovative measure of well-being based on a civic understanding of love. After showing that love is a driver of innovation and that it can be defined as a sociological concept, the chapter explores the challenge of “measuring the unmeasurable.” It explores the theoretical foundations of the project, the process of constructing the index, and the key methodological decisions behind it. The chapter also highlights the two waves of data collection conducted to date, and introduces the two pillars of the global indicator: the citizens’ index and the institutions’ index. It emphasizes how social cohesion and solidarity at a global scale are the product of an integrated action—from below, through the active and critical engagement of citizens, and from above, through institutions acting as drivers of solidarity.