Synthesis of Indicators

Indicators developed through the hierarchical design form a complex system. This characteristic may require approaches allowing more concise views able to summarizing the complexity (synthesis). Synthesis concerns different aspects of the system (Maggino, 2017): • synthesis of units (cases, subjects, etc.) with reference to one indicator, which aims at aggregating the individuals' value observed at micro level; this synthesis should allow the created macro units to be compared (social groups, age groups, geographic areas, time frame), with reference to the indicators of interest; • synthesis of basic indicators which aims at aggregating the values referring to several indicators for each unit, micro (individual level) or macro (regional, national, group level). The synthesis may be represented by numerical values or graphical representations.