Distribution of well-being: housing

How people live, in terms of where and how they are housed, is important for their quality of life. It includes aspects such as social cohesion in the neighbourhood, neighbourhood amenities, characteristics of the home itself and the affordability of living there. In previous editions of the monitor this theme was based on satisfaction with housing.

This indicator did not really do justice to the problems related to this theme, such as the affordability of rent and mortgage payments, but also energy and other housing costs. As these problems very probably impact quality of life, from 2024 the monitor will describe this theme in terms of housing expense ratio, i.e. the percentage of income spent on housing (total housing expenses). We use the median housing expense ratio for this purpose: half of Dutch households spend this percentage or less of their income on housing expenses. The lower the share of income spent on housing, the more favourable the situation.

  • The share of income spent on housing – or housing expense ratio – is relatively high for age groups up to 35 years and the group aged 75 years and older, people with low education levels, and households in which the household reference person himself/herself or his/her parents were born in a country outside Europe.
  • The housing expense ratio is relatively low for households in which the household reference person is aged between 45 and 64 years, has a high level of education or was born in the Netherlands with both parents also born there.
  • The housing expense ratio was substantially lower in 2022 than in 2019. This is a favourable trend, and was observed in the population with lower incomes in particular.

Housing expense ratio

Situation in 2022

In January 2022 the housing expense ratio was below 20 percent for half of Dutch households, and 20 percent or higher for the other half.

  • The level of the ratio correlates with the age of the household reference person. If he or she is younger than 35 years it is relatively high. The same is true for the over-75s. For reference persons in age groups between 45 and 65 years, the housing expense ratio is relatively low.
  • Education level also correlates with housing expense ratio. Household reference persons with lower education levels relatively often have high housing expense ratios, those with higher education often spend a smaller share of their income on housing.
  • Lastly, the median housing expense ratio is relatively high for households in which the reference person himself/herself or his/her parents were born outside Europe.

Age, education level and origin/country of birth may correlate with each other. If we take these correlations into account, households with reference persons aged between 55 and 64 years are still more likely to have a lower housing expense ratio than the youngest and oldest age groups. Low housing expense ratios also remain more common among households of reference persons with higher education levels than among those with low education levels. Furthermore, households with a reference person born in the Netherlands, whose parents were also born in the Netherlands, are more likely to spend a relatively small share of their income on housing expenses.

Changes between 2019 and 2022

The median housing expense ratio was substantially lower in 2022 than in 2019. This is a favourable trend, primarily observed for people with lower incomes. These are often households with reference persons with a low level of education or born outside the Netherlands. The improved housing expense ratio for the lower-income groups was partly caused by higher income levels in 2022, which were partly the result of the government energy allowance for households with an income below 120 percent of the social minimum. Additionally, all households in the Netherlands received partial compensation for energy costs. Households in the age group up to 25 years were an exception: they have relatively low incomes, and the housing expense ratio for this group rose relatively strongly.