This chapter focuses on how the idea of what is now called national or societal wellbeing has developed over time. It explores whether or not there is something that is tangible as national wellbeing, broader than the health of a nation's economy, because it is usually needed to define something before measuring it. The current desire for better measures of national wellbeing and progress is characterised as ‘Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and beyond’. The chapter looks at the history of GDP and identifies measures that have been proposed as alternatives or supplements to GDP over the years. It introduces a number of different approaches and set them in the context of how people have talked about the good society or the wellbeing of the nation. The perspective that the achievement of happiness is the aim of life was taken up in the Enlightenment in the ethical position called utilitarianism.