The Netherlands worth 3,500,000,000,000 euro

Total assets in the Netherlands were worth around 3.5 trillion euro in 2008. This is the equivalent of just over 210 thousand  euro per inhabitant, and is more than double the value in 1996.

Assets in the Netherlands

Homes main assets

More than half the assets consists of dwellings. In 1996 this was still only 40 percent. The total value of homes tripled between 1996 and 2008. This explains most of the increase in value of total assets in the Netherlands between 1996 and 2008.

Company buildings, roads, dykes, machinery and company transport equipment also accounted for a considerable part (just over 30 percent) of Dutch assets in 2008. The remaining assets account for less; farmland and stocks, for example, each accounted for 2 percent of the value of Dutch assets in 2008.

Value of assets by type

Price effect accounts for main increase in value

The increased value of homes and company buildings in the period 1996-2008 was mainly caused by price increases. This is certainly the case for natural gas. The reserves of minerals, mainly natural gas, decreased between 1996 and 2008. However, the increase in the price of gas was so large that the value of the reserves rose by more than 150 percent.

The value of farmland nearly doubled between 1996 and 2008, while the total area decreased. The increase in value of consumer durables such as clothes, household appliances and cars was caused by a volume increase in these items.

Increase in value of assets 1996-2008, by price and volume

Dirk van den Bergen and Puck Taminiau-van Veen