生活水平（Standard of living）一般以人均实际收入（即调整通货膨胀）和贫困率等标准衡量，其他标准包括健康护理质素、收入增长不均和教育水平，例如拥有某些商品的多寡（如每千人的冰箱数量），或反映健康的指标如预期寿命。生活水平是人们能生活在一个时间和地点而满足他们的需要和想要的容易度。

生活水平异于生活质量，后者考虑到物质的生活水平和其他生活的元素，如休闲、安全、文化资源、社交活动、健康、环境质量问题等，这些判断必须基于更复杂的评估方法，而判断往往牵涉到政治，从而引起争议。即使在两个国家或社会有类似的物质生活水平，两者也可能因生活质素的因素而有不同的吸引力。

Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods and necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, hours of work required to purchase necessities, gross domestic product, inflation rate, number of holiday days per year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety. The standard of living is closely related to quality of life. In 2013, the Human Development Index ranked the top six countries for quality of living as: Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, United States and Germany.