Distribution of well-being: health

For obvious reasons, health is closely linked with well-being: poor health often goes hand in hand with lower levels of well-being and can cause problems at work, in terms of social activities, and have consequences for suitable housing, for example (CBS, 2016). To describe the distribution of health in various groups of the population, we use the indicator self-perceived health, i.e. how healthy people say they feel. Further information on the health of the Dutch population can be found on Statline (CBS, 2023a).

  • In 2023, 78 percent of the Dutch population rated their own health as good or very good.
  • Men, people in age groups up to 45 years, those with higher education, people born in the Netherlands whose parents were also born in the Netherlands, and those born in the Netherlands with one parent born outside Europe rate their health as good or very good more often than average.
  • The share of people describing their own health as good or very good was 1.2 percentage points lower in 2023 than in 2019.

Perceived health

Situation in 2023

People’s perception of their own health has proven to be a good indicator of their general state of health. The specific perception outcome we use here is the percentage of people who assess their own health as good or very good. In 2023, 78 percent of the Dutch population reported their own health as being good or very good.

  • Relatively more men than women say their health is good or very good. This tallies with the fact that more women than men suffer from chronic illness, physical disabilities and pain-related limitations (CBS, 2023b).
  • The percentage of people who perceive their own health as good or very good decreases with age. Up to and including the 35- to 44-year group, people are more likely than average to judge their health positively, while people in age groups older than 55 years are less likely to do so. Older people are also more likely to have health problems such as chronic illness, physical impairments and pain-related limitations.
  • Higher educated people are more likely than average to report being in good or very good health, while for the lower educated group this is well below average.
  • People born in the Netherlands whose parents were also born in the Netherlands are more positive than average about their own health. This is also the case for people born in the Netherlands with at least one parent born outside Europe. Those who themselves were born outside Europe are less positive than average about their health.

Sex, age, education level and origin/country of birth may correlate with each other. People with lower education levels, for example, are on average older than people with higher education levels. For the measurements conducted in this analysis, these relations are taken into account by applying a standardisation procedure, which corrects for the variation in the occurrence of the above characteristics. On the basis of standardised figures, the difference in self-perceived health between higher educated and lower educated people is smaller. But also on the basis of these figures, self-perceived health of lower educated people remains relatively low and that of higher educated people remains relatively high. The remaining statistically significant differences between groups described above remain intact after standardisation. The only exception is self-perceived health of people born in the Netherlands with one or both parents born outside Europe. One reason for this is that this group comprises relatively many young people, and younger people are generally more likely to report good or very good health. After standardisation, self-perceived health for this group is substantially less favourable than above average; the level is around the national average.

Changes between 2019 and 2023

In 2023 the proportion of people describing their own health as good or very good was 1.2 percentage points lower than in 2019. Compared with this decrease for the population as a whole, the following groups show different developments:

  • The share of over-75s who rated their health as good or very good showed a relatively large increase: 3.5 percentage points.
  • Self-perceived health for people with higher education levels changed relatively unfavourably, with a fall of 3.1 percentage points.
  • The trend for people born in the Netherlands whose parents were also born in the Netherlands was relatively slightly less unfavourable than average, with a decrease of 0.5 percentage points. The group who were born in a country outside Europe showed a relatively unfavourable trend: a fall of 5.6 percentage points.

The remaining statistically significant differences between groups described above remain intact after standardisation.