The Netherlands’ Monitor of Well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals has been released annually since 2018 by Statistics Netherlands. It presents trends in well-being in the Netherlands from a broad perspective - encompassing the economy, the environment and society – as well as Dutch progress on the SDGs.
The Netherlands’ Monitor of Well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract
Context
In 2017, following a request by the House of Representatives, the Minister for Economic Affairs requested Statistics Netherlands to compile a statistical Monitor of Well-being. This measurement tool allows the government to gain a multifaceted understanding of Dutch society and of its progress towards well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Monitor has been published annually since 2018. It is released each May on Accountability Day, when the government reports to the House of Representatives on its annual goals and achievements.
Description and key outcomes
The Monitor considers three main aspects of well-being. First, it assesses long-term trends through three dimensions of well-being: ‘here and now’, ‘later’, and ‘elsewhere’. Well-being here and now comprises eight themes: subjective well-being; material well-being; health; work and leisure time; housing; society; safety; and, the environment. Well-being later assesses the sustainability of well-being measured in terms of economic, natural, human and social capital. Finally, the elsewhere dimension measures Dutch policies’ impact on well-being in other countries, in the two following domains: environment and resources; and trade and aid.
Second, the Monitor presents the distribution of well-being based on 13 indicators compared across groups by sex, age, education levels, and migration background. The distribution of well-being is monitored through two angles: the situation for each group across indicators, and the accumulation of favourable or unfavourable outcomes in each group.
Third, the Monitor assesses the resilience of nature, society and economy in the Netherlands, and how they would fare in the case of a shock such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2019, the Monitor features a separate dashboard of 293 indicators to reflect the Netherlands’s progress in each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of United Nations’ 2030 Agenda.
Policy relevance
The goal of the Monitor on Well-being and the SDGs is both to assist the government in impact assessment and to inform Dutch society about the development of well-being in the country.
Further information
Statistics Netherlands (2023), Monitor of Well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals 2023, https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/dossier/dossier-well-being-and-the-sustainable-development-goals/monitor-of-well-being-and-the-sustainable-development-goals-2023#:~:text=The%20Monitor%20of%20Well%2Dbeing,countries%20(%27elsewhere%27).
Statistics Netherlands (2022), Monitor of Well-being and the Sustainable Development Goals 2022,
https://longreads.cbs.nl/monitor-of-well-being-and-sdgs-2022/summary/
Statistics Netherlands (2022), Monitor of Well-being & the Sustainable Development Goals 2022 web publication, https://longreads.cbs.nl/monitor-of-well-being-and-sdgs-2022/ (accessed October 30 2023)
Statistics Netherlands (2021), Monitor of Well-being & the Sustainable Development Goals 2021, https://longreads.cbs.nl/monitor-of-well-being-and-sdgs-2021/introduction/
UNECE, Case Study for Road Map on Statistics for SDGs 2.0, Netherlands: Using well-being and SDG indicators to hold government to account, https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/CS%20NL%20Using%20well-being%20and%20SDG%20indicators%20to%20hold%20government%20to%20account_0.pdf
OECD resources
OECD, How’s Life in your country? Country notes, Netherlands, https://www.oecd.org/wise/measuring-well-being-and-progress.htm#country-notes
OECD (2023), Economic Policy Making to Pursue Economic Welfare: OECD Report for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, May 2023, Japan, OECD, Paris. https://www.oecd.org/economy/G7_Beyond_GDP_Economic_policy_making_to_pursue_economic_welfare_2023.pdf
