The government has unveiled a 12-point Wellbeing Framework to augment traditional economic measures of the territory's performance which will be incorporated in budget planning processes from 2021-22.

The framework will use self-rated surveys and statistical data to rate the experience of Canberrans across 12 dimensions of wellbeing, including education, environment, health, housing, safety, economy, infrastructure, living standard, governance, social connection, identity and time.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said that, important as economic conditions were, they only provided a partial measure of quality of life.

"More and more, governments around the world are recognising that economic growth alone does not account for a community's success or progress over time," the chief minister said. "To gain a real sense of our wellbeing, we must broaden our gaze to look at the range of factors that contribute to quality of life, how they can be sustained and improved over time for future generations, and ensure that all in the community are feeling the benefits of improved wellbeing."

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Mr Barr said having the wellbeing indicators would enable the government to "zero in" on areas where more work and investment was needed.

The development of the wellbeing framework follows similar initiatives in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivered the country's first "wellbeing budget" in 2019 which included spending on mental health, child poverty, family violence and homelessness.

But in 2016 the-then Treasury secretary John Fraser ditched the wellbeing framework introduced by Dr Ken Henry, arguing that his focus was on living standards and "if living standards are not about wellbeing then I do not know what is".

Sceptics have raised concerns about the subjectivity of many measures of wellbeing, and several have queried whether such frameworks have actually made a difference to policy.

But Mr Barr insisted the ACT government would use the wellbeing measures to inform its decisions.

"Having a set of wellbeing indicators will help us zero in on where we need to invest more of our time, energy and creativity to make a real difference for those Canberrans who currently aren't sharing in the benefits of our prosperity in the way they should," he said.

An initial "dashboard" of wellbeing measures will be developed and released in the second half of 2020, and will be updated every two years.

The government said wellbeing principles would be introduced throughout the 2020-21 budget, and would be "thoroughly incorporated" in the 2021-22 budget process "and the years ahead".

In addition to measuring community-wide wellbeing, the framework will also include data on specific groups including the elderly, children, indigenous people, those with a disability and those with differing sexual orientations.

The framework was developed by the government in consultation with experts from the Australian National University and University of Canberra and input from the public.