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Constant question in determination of a social system state is how to obtain a sufficient quantity of information with a small enough, manageable indicator set.

The concept is developed in a thorough analysis of strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, and in thorough contrasting the proposed solutions with these.

The social free energy and social entropy overcome the gap between the meta‐theoretically founded quantities and indicators related to social system state description. The social free energy measures the totality of resources used for social system preservation during changes in environment. The social entropy measures the number of different realisations of a particular state.

Combination of social free energy and social entropy is on the one hand a set of quantities easily determinable from available data, and on the other hand a set of indicators intuitively connected with social system states. We relate the system social free energy and levels of organisation and adaptation. From these measures we derive the measure of social system adaptation.

The use of social free energy in describing the social system states adds a significant value in forming the small set of representative indicators. It is of importance for all researchers; theoreticians and practitioners.