Well-being of young adults trailing behind other age groups

Well-being is affected by more than just income and wealth. It also encompasses how healthy and happy people feel, how they feel about their work and whether they trust people and organisations. From both an individual and a collective point of view, these aspects are not spread equally across various groups in the population.
The report analyses how well-being is distributed across population groups in the Netherlands on the basis of thirteen indicators in eight themes: well-being, material well-being, health, labour and leisure time, housing, society, safety and the environment. For each indicator, a specific population group has an outcome equal to the average, higher than the average or lower than the average for the overall population. Higher or lower than average may be favourable or unfavourable, depending on whether it has a positive or negative effect on well-being.

Both subjective and material well-being lower among youngest adults

For the youngest group – under the age of 25 – outcomes for seven of the thirteen indicators are less favourable than average. People in young households have less money, lower purchasing power, and a relatively large part of their income is spent on housing costs. In addition to these material aspects, people in this youngest group are less satisfied than average with the amount of free time they can enjoy as well as with life in general, are less likely to trust other people, and are more often victims of crime. Unfavourable outcomes also prevail among 25 to 34-year-olds, although they do not have lower purchasing power and do not trust other people less. However, they are less likely than average to do voluntary work.
The youngest age groups show favourable outcomes in terms of health, labour participation, trust in institutions and experiencing environmental problems in their neighbourhood.
In contrast to the youngest groups, favourable outcomes are in the majority for people aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64. They particularly fare better than average in material terms (higher disposable income and wealth, and relatively less income spent on housing costs). They also trust other people more. Voluntary work is also more common in the 45 to 54-year age group, while 55 to 64-year-olds are more satisfied with their lives and are less often victims of crime.

Sizeable differences between education levels and country of origin

Well-being not only differs between age groups. Substantial differences in numbers of favourable or unfavourable outcomes were also established between people with different education levels and different countries of birth/origin. Favourable outcomes were predominant among the higher educated group and people born in the Netherlands to parents also born there.

Medium-term trends also least favourable for youngest group

Compared with 2019, age groups below 45 years revealed relatively more unfavourable than favourable changes in 2023; well-being decreased for these groups. Here, too, the youngest group – aged under 25 – stands out, scoring below average in six areas compared with 2019. Conversely, age groups above 55 years show a number of relatively favourable developments compared with 2019.

People with higher education levels and those born outside Europe showed several unfavourable trends from 2019 to 2023.

Favourable outcomes stack up for 45 to 64-year-olds

The study examined not only average outcomes for the groups as a whole, but also outcomes at the individual level: to what extent do favourable or unfavourable outcomes accumulate for certain individuals? Nine of the thirteen well-being indicators were used to calculate this for the population aged 18 years or older. If an individual has favourable outcomes for at least seven of these nine indicators, this is defined as accumulation of favourable outcomes <link gunstige stapeling>. A total 23 percent of individuals had a favourable accumulation in 2023. Accumulation of favourable outcomes was relatively common for people aged 45 to 64 years, and less common among 25 to 34-year-olds.

If an individual has an unfavourable outcome for at least three indicators, we describe this as an accumulation of unfavourable outcomes. Nineteen percent of Dutch adults had an unfavourable accumulation in 2023. Differences between age groups occur here, as well, but accumulation of unfavourable outcomes is most frequent among people with low levels of education and people born outside Europe. For the lower educated these unfavourable outcomes more often concern working in paid employment, trust in other people and health. People born outside Europe are relatively likely to have unfavourable outcomes for income, wealth and trust in other people.

As relatively fewer young adults score positively on multiple aspects of well-being than in 2019, more of them than in 2019 are now in the middle group of the distribution.