Foreword

The European Union has been the renewed focus of attention since 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the Union. Elections to the European Parliament – held every five years – are taking place in May 2019.

Together with the other European statistical offices, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) contributes to a consistent set of statistics on Europe. Eurostat, established in Luxembourg and in charge of these European statistics, collects national and regional statistics from the various member states and publishes these figures via different channels. Eurostat works with the national statistical institutes to make the figures suitable for comparison and ensure they trace new developments.

In this publication, CBS takes a look at how the Netherlands is performing in comparison with other European countries. This entails a selection of topics that cover economic and social developments. A few examples: the Netherlands has one of the highest internet penetration rates, a relatively high life expectancy and low unemployment. Car ownership rates are slightly below the European average while health expenditure is higher; and consumption of sustainable, non-fossil energy sources is relatively low.

Unless otherwise specified, the figures in this publication have been compiled on the basis of the data from CBS and Eurostat as were most recently available at the time of writing. All figures cover the 28 member states of the European Union, including the United Kingdom.

I hope you enjoy reading this publication and invite you to visit www.cbs.nl/en-gb or ec.europa.eu/eurostat for even more information on the Netherlands and on Europe.

Director General

Dr T.B.P.M. Tjin-A-Tsoi

The Hague/Heerlen/Bonaire, May 2019