Netherlands
From Wikiprogress.org
| Netherlands | |
 Flag of Netherlands | |
| Population (In Millions) | 16.69 |
| Human Development Index | 3/169 |
| Gross Domestic Product (In USD Billions - World Bank) | 836.07 |
| Global Peace Index | 25/153 |
| Happy Planet Index | 43/143 |
| Social Institutions and Gender Index | - /86 |
| Environmental Performance Index | 47/163 |
| Child Mortality Rate | 3.4 |
| More information on variables | |
Contents |
Main Progress Initiatives
The Sustainable Society Index (SSI)
Developed by the Sustainable Society Foundation, this is a simple, clear and transparent index which is comprised of a number of aspects of a sustainable society and is comparable between countries. It integrates for the first time sustainability and quality of life in a way that is easy to understand. The framework of the Index for a Sustainable Society consists of five categories, each made up of several indicators.
The World Database of Hapiness
The World Database of Happiness was created by Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1984. It is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective of the enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work.
Happiness in the Netherlands
This is an overview of findings on Happiness in the Netherlands. The latest findings on the country are presented in the ‘Nation Report’ on The Netherlands [1]. This report is ordered by type of happiness questions and within these types, by year. This ordering is to ensure the assessment of progress, with comparison over time being made feasible by the use of the same questions.
The report presents means and standard deviations, both on the original scale range and transformed to a common range of 0-10. The means inform about the level of happiness in the country and the standard deviations about inequality of happiness.
Links provide more detail about the precise text of the question, the full distribution of responses and technical details of the survey. The report is updated on an ongoing basis.
The SCP Life Situation Index
The SCP Life Situation Index[1] is constructed to measure the progress of Dutch society using indicators that go beyond merely measuring economic growth. The Index incorporates indicators for eight domains of life: health, sport, social participation (loneliness, volunteering), cultural/leisure activities, housing, mobility, holidays and possession of assets. The results of the Life Situation Index are mainly published in The Social State of the Netherlands, which has been published every two years since 2001, most recently in 2009.
Official Statistics for the Netherlands
Statistics Netherlands [2]
Child Well-being in the Netherlands
Young Lives
The Young Lives Study is a study of child poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. The study investigates the cycles of poverty reproduction over the period 2011-1015 to inform development policy making. The study is co-financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2014.
Progress Papers and Publications
- Wellbeing in the Netherlands - The scp life situation index since 1974, Jeroen Boelhouwer, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research | SCP, The Hague, July 2010
- The Social State of the Netherlands 2009, Rob Bijl, Jeroen Boelhouwer, Evert Pommer, Peggy Schyns, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research | SCP, The Hague, March 2010
- Development towards a Sustainable Society, The Netherlands 1975 - 2008,Geurt van de Kerk and Arthur Manuel, Sustainable Society Foundation.
The study shows progress made towards the achievement of sustainability in The Netherlands with respect to Human, Environmental and Economic Wellbeing, using the set of 24 indicators of the Sustainable Society Index. Figures indicate that in recent years the country has become increasingly wealthy however, limited attention has been paid to sustainability. While GDP per capita increased by 500%, the overall index of sustainability grew by only 8%.
- A comprehensive index for a sustainable society: The SSI — the Sustainable Society Index, 2007, Geurt Van de Kerk; Arthur R. Manuel, Sustainable Society Foundation, Netherlands. In search of an adequate set of indicators to measure the level of sustainability of a country, the principal existing indexes have been examined. It has been concluded that none of them meet all requirements with principal shortcomings being a limited definition of sustainability, a lack of transparency and an absence of regular updates. For this reason, a new index — the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) — has been developed. The SSI integrates the most important aspects of sustainability and quality of life of a country's society in a simple and transparent way. Consisting of only 22 indicators, grouped into 5 categories, it is based upon the definition of the Brundtland Commission, extended to the Brundtland+ definition by explicitly including the social aspects of human life. Using data from scientific institutes and international organizations, the SSI has been developed for 150 countries for which the SSI could be calculated. The resulting SSI scores allow a quick comparison between countries and — as two-yearly updates become available — show developments over time.
- Sustainability Indicators, 2007, Jan Suurland, Counselor for Environment and Spatial Planning, Netherlands.
Created in 2007 by Mark de Haan and Peter Kee, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Accounting for sustainable development requires a broadening of scope of the conventional System of National Accounts. This wider perspective is necessary to account for the priceless environmental and social externalities, which are important in a sustainable development context. This paper's focus is on the Dutch National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts which extends the SNA with physical flow accounts.
A report created in 2004 by Jeroen Boelhouwer and Theo Roes for The Netherlands Institute for Social Research. The “Social State of the Netherlands” (SSN) provides a systematic overview of the quality of life and living conditions of the Dutch population. The report describes various domains, such as income, work, education, health, crime, housing, participation and leisure. In addition there is a domain-crossing chapter describes living conditions through one comprehensive index: the Living Conditions Index (LCI). The SSN is a monitor which is based on a causal model centering around the living conditions of the citizen. In order to ensure good living conditions are achieved and maintained, resources such as income and education, are necessary: the more resources at a person's disposal, the greater the chance of good living conditions. In the model, attention is also paid to the environment (physical and social). The model is not only about the actual situation in which people find themselves, but also provides information about the way that people rate their living conditions and the extent to which people are more or less happy.
To ensure the development of good policy, government's require quality information. This is the case in the Netherlands, as well as thorughout Europe: payments from the EU Structural Funds, compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact and the monitoring of the achievement of the Lisbon targets all rely on dependable statistics.
This report was created by F.A. van Vught for Statistics Netherlands in 2004. Economic growth, measured by the volume increase in national income, does not represent an increase in welfare per se. Many determinants of welfare remain hidden in an income measure representing the free disposable sum of money received by all economic agents in an economy. In economic theory, it is generally acknowledged that utility is also derived from non-priced amenities such as leisure and a well-preserved natural environment.
- Knowledge Indicators based on Satellite accounts - Final Report for NESIS, 2003, Mark de Haan and Myriam van Rooijen-Horsten, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Netherlands. Post-industrialised economies are often characterised as being more and more knowledge and information oriented. Most policy strategies aim at enhancing this knowledge orientation as a way to increase competitiveness and to provide better jobs. A good example in this context is the European Lisbon Strategy. This paper explores the required modifications to the national accounts to enhance the system's link to indicators that are currently used to measure the role of knowledge in the economy.
- Accounting for Sustainable Development, 2002, Peter Kee and Mark de Haan, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Netherlands. The Brundtland Commission defines sustainable development as: "development that meets needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 8). The Brundtland report highlights three fundamental components to sustainable development: economic growth, environmental protection and social equity. The economic area, the environmental area and the social area are widely recognised as dimensions that should be addressed by sustainable development policies.
- Knowledge Transfer and the Services Sector in the Context of the New Economy, 2001, Robin Cowan, Luc Soete & Oxana Tchervonnaya, MERIT – Maastricht Economic Researchn Institute on Innovation and Technology, Netherlands
- Measuring Well-Being with an Integrated System of Economic and Social Accounts, 1999, Peter van de Ven, Brugt Kazemier and Steven Keuning, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Netherlands. The national accounts provide a systematic overview of the performance of a nation's economy. An important indicator which can be derived from this system is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Often, GDP (volume of growth) is equated with (the increase of) in the welfare or well-being of the society concerned. Well-being however, is more complex and multidimensional. In this paper, (economic) well-being is defined, and different methods to take into account the various aspects of well-being are discussed. Subsequently, the System of Economic and Social Accounting Matrices including Extensions (SESAME), the Dutch alternative to measuring well-being, is introduced
- The Impact of Technology on Economic Growth: Some New Ideas and Empirical Considerations, 1999, Ivo De Loo and Luc Soete, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, University of Maastricht, Netherlands.
- Measuring well-being in the Netherlands. The SCP index from 1974 to 1997, 1999, Jeroen Boelhouwer; Ineke Stoop, The Netherlands Institute for Social Research, Netherlands. In 1974, the Netherlands Social and Cultural Planning Office developed an index to monitor and document living conditions over time; the LCI (Living Conditions Index). It is composed of indicators which reflect conditions in areas that are influenceable by government policy, like housing, health, leisure activity and ownership of consumer durables. Taken together, the indicators provide an objectified description of living conditions. The index has proved its value in the past two decades. It enables us to monitor how the different factors that influence living conditions interrelate and change over time. Education, income and employment are the key facilitating factors (‘resources’) for the achievement of good living conditions. The LCI also correlates with subjective satisfaction. New trends in society and discussions about which indicators are appropriate have made it necessary for modifications to be made to the index from time to time. In 1997 the index was updated and revised. At present the SCP is developing a conceptual model that will link the living conditions index to indices of livability, poverty and socioeconomic deprivation.
- The Netherlands' NAMEA; Presentation, Usage and Future Extension, 1998, Steven Keuning, Jan van Dalen and Marc de Haan, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Netherlands. The national accounting matrix, including environmental accounts (NAMEA), contains figures on environmental burdens in relation to economic developments as reflected in the national accounts. In the NAMEA, existing national accounts matrices have been extended with accounts in physical units. Since 1994, the NAMEA is a regular part of the annual Dutch national accounts. In this article, an aggregate NAMEA will be described. Next, the contribution of economic activities to economic indicators is compared with their contribution to environmental issues, both based on the information in the NAMEA.
