3. The extent of illegal activities in the Netherlands

At the time of the revision of the national accounts, the value added of the illegal activities in the Dutch economy – namely drugs, prostitution (including the legal aspects) and the illegal trade in tobacco – for 2021 was estimated at €4.5 billion. This refers exclusively to the value that was allocated to the Dutch economy because it was earned by residents (see the information box). In 2021, the share of the illegal economy in Dutch GDP was 0.5%. The latest estimate for the 2015 reporting year puts the extent of the illegal economy at 0.6% of GDP.

As mentioned in Section 2, estimates were made for fewer illegal activities in 2021 than in 2015, although the mandatory illegal activities relating to drugs, prostitution and the illegal trade in tobacco were estimated in both reporting years. In the 2015 reporting year, the share of these activities was 0.5% of GDP; the relative extent of these activities remained the same in 2021, but this picture is more nuanced as the various illegal activities saw substantial changes in the intervening years. However, it is not possible to make an authoritative statement about whether and to what extent these changes were caused by a clear increase in the scale of the illegal activities, or whether this research and new sources enabled CBS to observe the changes more accurately.