Well-being ‘later’: social capital
- Trust in other people, trust in judges and trust in the EU all show an upward trend.
- Compared with people in other EU countries, the Dutch expressed more trust in other people and in institutions (House of Representatives, police and judges) in 2020.
- In 2020, 12.1 percent of the Dutch population considered themselves as belonging to a group that is discriminated against. This is high compared with other EU countries, and the trend is stable.
- Social cohesion in residential neighbourhoods no longer shows an upward trend.
Social capital
in EU
in 2020
in EU
in 2020
in EU
in 2020
| Theme | Indicator | Value | Trend | Position in EU | Position in EU ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social capital | Trust in other people | 66.7% of the population over 15 think most people can be trusted in 2023 | increasing (increase well-being) | 2nd out of 19 in 2020 | High ranking |
| Social capital | Feelings of discrimination | 12.1% of the population over 15 say they are discriminated against in 2020 | 16th out of 19 in 2020 | Low ranking | |
| Social capital | Trust in institutions | 61.2% of the population over 15 answered “very high“ or “fairly high“ in 2023 | 2nd out of 19 in 2020 | High ranking |
Colour codes and notes to the dashboards in the Monitor of Well-being
Social capital reflects the quality of contacts within society: people’s ability to participate in their community and to interact with other people. CBS measures this by asking people how much trust they have in other people and in important institutions such as the police, judges, and the House of Representatives. Two-thirds of the population say most people can be trusted, which is high compared with other EU countries. Moreover, people’s trust in each other continues to increase. Trust in institutions (House of Representatives, police, and judges combined) is also high compared with other EU countries, as indicated by the 2020 European Social Survey (ESS). After peaking in 2020 (69.5 percent), the level of trust in institutions fell in 2021 and 2022 to 66.9 and 61.3 percent respectively, to become more stable in 2023. Underlying this trend was the notable increase in trust in the House of Representatives in the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 13.2 percentage point increase in 2020 was followed by falls of 10.9 and 11.9 percentage points respectively in 2021 and 2022.
In addition to trust between individual people, trust between different groups in society is also important. The monitor measures this in terms of whether people feel discriminated against. This indicator reflects the extent to which people feel they belong to a group who say they cannot fully participate in society or are not fully accepted. According to the ESS, in 2020 12.1 percent of the Dutch population aged 15 years and older considered themselves to be part of a group that was discriminated against. This figure places the Netherlands relatively unfavourably within the EU. Discrimination is increasingly a topic of discussion in society. CBS now surveys discrimination in its two-yearly Safety Monitor, but still has too few data to calculate a trend. The CBS data (11.2 percent in 2021 and 10.8 percent in 2023) are roughly in the same order of magnitude as those from the ESS.
Social capital is not only an important asset for well-being ‘later’ but also a key component of the theme society in well-being ‘here and now’. This dimension of well-being examines various relevant factors, including social cohesion, how people interact in terms of social contacts with family, friends and neighbours, voluntary work and perception of norms and values.