Annual Report Youth Monitor 2022 Summary

Introduction (Chapter 1)

Ruud van Herk (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport)

Reflections on youth assistance are in full swing in 2022, and municipalities, providers, clients, professionals and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport are all focused on the so-called Youth Reform Agenda. After all, more and more young people are receiving youth assistance. In 2015, 1 in 10 young people under the age of 18 received youth assistance against 1 in 7.5 in 2021.noot1 As a result, municipalities are spending more money on youth assistance than they are receiving from the central government, which is why additional funds have been made available to municipalities for 2022 and 2023. This Reform Agenda is to establish agreements between parties on keeping the cost of youth assistance affordable. Agreement needs to be reached on scope, quality and effectiveness, municipal access, standardisation of procurement and regional procurement of certain forms of youth assistance, among others. Finally, the new agreements also need to be monitored. This Annual Report edition of the National Youth Monitor provides a broad overview of the living situation among the young population of the Netherlands.

How are the young people in the Netherlands doing? The living situation of young people is subject to change and the coronavirus crisis, among others, caused young people to downgrade their sense of well-being from 2020. In recent years, we could see in the Youth Monitor that the use of youth assistance had kept pace with increased prosperity in general and a relatively high perceived level of well-being among young people in the Netherlands. This while it is often assumed that youth assistance is called upon more when young people are doing less well, which thus turned out not to be the case. In 2020, both the level of well-being experienced among young people and the use of youth assistance dropped. What is the current state of young people’s prosperity, their perceived well-being and the use of youth assistance in 2021?

The Annual Report Youth Monitor 2022 first focuses on the demographic development in young people, to then proceed with the developments in the use of youth care. The overview of the use of youth care is then enriched with information on young people’s living situation using a number of social indicators. These social indicators are discussed in the chapters on growing up under unequal circumstances, school, work, crime and substance use. The state of affairs of these subjects may impact young people’s well-being, which can be read in Chapter 10. As figures on the use of youth care and social indicators are also available at municipality level, it is possible to benchmark the living situation of young people per municipality against the use of youth care in the municipality. The living situation of young people in the BES Islands is described separately in Chapter 9.

This year’s theme-based survey is about the youth care labour market (see Chapter 11). After all, as in other sectors, staff scarcity is the daily reality. This problem is not easily solved because various factors interact and ultimately affect issues such as workload, worker satisfaction and worker inflow and outflow, among others. The challenge for all parties involved is to look at it with even more creativity. In addition to the theme-based chapter, Jan Hendriks has spoken with four municipalities, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and Jeugdzorg Nederland (Youth Care Netherlands) to interview them about how they view these labour market challenges and whether they have sufficient data on social indicators and youth care to determine and monitor their policies accordingly.

Chapter 2 on demographic trends among young people shows that the share of young people (up to the age of 24) in the population is falling. This is because elderly people are living longer, among other reasons. The number of births increased from 170 thousand in 2020 to 179,5 thousand in 2021. One other striking feature is that the municipalities that proportionately have the largest share of young people among their population, such as Urk and Staphorst, register a very low use of youth assistance. There appears to be a relationship with the relatively high number of Reformed Christians and large families here. Furthermore, the number of young people with at least one foreign-born parent is increasing, and 1 in 6 young people is living in a single-parent family. The latter increasing number is a predictor of the use of youth assistance.noot2

Chapter 3, titled ‘Youth care and Veilig Thuis (Home Safe)’, describes the development of the use of youth care, which is the total of youth assistance, youth protection and juvenile rehabilitation. In 2021, the number of young people up to the age of 22 who received youth care rose to 461 thousand young people. Within youth care as a whole, the number of young people receiving youth assistance is highest, with 450 thousand young people up to the age of 22 receiving youth assistance in 2021. It is difficult to make a comparison with 2020 this time, because of a break in the trend in the figures, owing to a group of 1,500 mainly small-scale youth aid providers that CBS captured for the first time as of 2021. A previous CBS surveynoot3 on youth assistance showed that the number of young people up to the age of 17 increased to 434 thousand in 2021.noot4 The increase in the use of youth assistance is mainly owing to on-site outreach care. The differences in the use of youth assistance between municipalities vary greatly. Tiel, for instance, continues to rank first in the use of in-kind youth assistance with 24 percent of all young people up to the age of 17, almost 1 in 4 young people. These percentages are 19 percent and 20.5 percent respectively for Heerde and Terneuzen. At the other end of the spectrum we find Staphorst at 6.4 percent, Westvoorne at 6.7 percent, Schiedam at 7.1 percent and Raalte at 7.2 percent. In Rotterdam, use of youth assistance is also low compared to other large cities at 8.8 percent. Repeat appeals did not increase significantly in 2021 compared to the 2020 COVID year.

We see a slight decrease in youth protection (family supervision and guardianship) compared to 2015, to 41 thousand young people, and a slightly steeper drop in juvenile rehabilitation to 8 thousand young people in 2021. The latter downward trend is also seen in the declining crime rate in Chapter 8. More often than not, parents of young people under a family supervision order do not live together. There are also often separation proceedings at issue. A recent study by Significant shows that 92 percent of young people under a youth protection order in 2020 were dealing with separated parents. In addition, there is a relationship between youth protection measures and parents availing of specialist mental health services, often in conjunction with a separation.noot5 The number of recommendations regarding child abuse or domestic violence continued to rise from 701 to 766 recommendations per population of 100 thousand since 2020, and the total number of reports fell from 127 thousand to 119 thousand.

A key indicator for the use of youth assistance is the number of children growing up in families on income supportnoot6 (see Chapter 4). This picture is given more depth by comparing the context of over 200 thousand children growing up in families on income support with that of 127 thousand children growing up in millionaire families in the Netherlands. What this chapter can teach us is that clichés are backed up with data. The first distinction that can be made is that children in income support families are relatively often born abroad or have at least one foreign-born parent while children with a millionaire background are mostly of Dutch origin. The first group is well represented in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Heerlen, and lowly represented in Rozendaal, Hattem and Urk. Bloemendaal, Laren, Blaricum and Wassenaar have many children with millionaire backgrounds, which are few and far between in Brunssum, Kerkrade, Landgraaf and Heerlen. Among the large cities, Rotterdam in particular has the greatest imbalance between few children growing up in millionaire families and many children growing up in families on income support. Many children in income support families with a foreign background come from Syria and Morocco. Children in millionaire families mostly have Dutch-born parents who both work, while children in income support families more often live alone with their mothers.

Chapter 5 shows that the pass rate of young people in secondary education fell in 2021. The requirements were adjusted in the 2020 COVID year, there were few pupils who repeated the same year and there will be a correction to this in 2021. The number of pupils who repeated the same year also increased in 2021. Girls often do better at school than boys. And among those pupils in intermediate vocational education, girls more often choose occupations in healthcare and boys are more likely to opt for the construction industry, engineering, mobility or information-related professions. The participation in the labour market of young people increased in 2021, following the dip in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis (see Chapter 6). In 2020, municipalities Urk, Reusel-de Mierden and Staphorst had the highest participation rates in the labour market. The workload experienced by young people also increased. The workload is relatively high especially among those working in the accommodation and food services sector. Work-related mental fatigue often involves young people working as retail sales assistants. Still, most young people are satisfied with their jobs, though dissatisfied with the salary.

Chapter 7 on substance use and lifestyle features shows that the number of smokers among young adults is decreasing compared to 2014. The consumption of alcohol and cannabis among young adults has been stable since 2014. Being overweight (12 percent of children) and being obese (3 percent of children) is more common among young people of parents with a low educational level. However, more and more children of parents with a low educational level do meet the exercise guidelines.

Chapter 8 outlines the status of crime among young people, both in terms of suspects and victims. The established downward trend of young people suspected of committing a crime persists, most notably in pickpocketing (–40 percent) and residential burglary (–25 percent). The most common traditional criminal offence is theft. The share of crime suspects is lower among girls relative to boys. Young victims of crime often lived in extremely urbanised neighbourhoods. In Groningen, 29 percent of young people were victims and in Fryslân the percentage was lowest at 19 percent. As the number of crime victims falls, the feeling of being unsafe among young people also drops from 46 percent in 2012 to 43 percent in 2021.

As outlined in Chapter 9, on 1 January 2022, 7,3 thousand young people were living on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, of which the majority, 5,9 thousand young people, were living on Bonaire. The number of young people living on Bonaire is increasing slightly, but is falling as a share of the population from 30 percent in 2012 to 26 percent in 2021. On the other islands, the number of young people is declining slightly. The circumstances in which young people in the Caribbean Netherlands (CN) grow up differ from their peers in the European Netherlands. Fewer young people (over half) lived with both parents compared to peers in the European Netherlands. On St Eustatius, for instance, more young people (43 percent) lived in single-parent families compared to young people living with both parents, which was 41 percent. Furthermore, the participation in the labour market of young people in the Caribbean Netherlands is lower than in the European Netherlands. Many young people in secondary education or intermediate vocational education do not see their future on the islands. They would prefer to go to mainly the European Netherlands or the United States after completing their education.

Finally, the scores on the social indicators discussed above may also have a possible link to the well-being of young people (see Chapter 10). The survey focuses on the population aged 18 to 24. The year 2021 shows a further drop in young adults’ well-being, they are less happy, less satisfied with their lives and experience lower personal well-being than in 2020. In 2021, 81 percent of young adults felt happy and satisfaction with life dropped to 77 percent from 81 percent in 2020. The lower personal well-being mainly involved the areas of trust, social life, health, financial future and education, as well as profession. The most significant fallers in the ranking of the various dimensions are (mental) health and social life. There is a significant difference in personal well-being between men and women; with the latter scoring substantially lower. In addition, the downturn is less among young people with parents in the higher income groups. Social life does not yet seem to have fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. Young adults had fewer regular social contacts. They also felt very emotionally lonely more often than in 2019.

Also, the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) surveynoot7 on well-being, which also includes young people aged 12 to 16, and which is conducted every four years, shows that young people’s mental health plummeted between 2017 and 2021, especially among girls. The question now is, what does this decline in well-being mean for the demand for youth assistance, an increase or a decrease in fact? After all, until now, an increase in the use of youth assistance had kept pace with a relatively high well-being of young people and a rise in prosperity levels in general. In 2021, the level of use of youth assistance was high, but minus the clients served by 1,500 newly tracked youth assistance providers, the use of youth assistance increased only slightly. This does not detract from the fact that many sectors are facing staff shortages and the coronavirus pandemic has led to considerable labour mobility. The question then arises, how do these developments play out for youth care services?

Chapter 11 analyses the state of affairs in the youth care labour market. The majority of employees in the broad youth care domain are relatively young, female (84 percent) and highly educated, work more hours than average in the health and well-being sector, experience a high workload more often and experience more aggression by patients or clients than average in the health and well-being sector. As many as 84 percent of these employees reported that they work in a client-related profession. A relatively large group belongs to the occupational group of youth care workers (17 percent). According to 64 percent of employees in the broad youth care domain, the workload intensified in 2021. Three quarters of professionals are satisfied with their work. The aggression experienced by employees in the broad youth care domain from clients or patients (74 percent) in the fourth quarter of 2021 is higher than the average in the healthcare sector (64 percent). However, the level of aggression experienced by them has decreased compared to the second quarter of 2019. Still, one quarter of respondents in the broad youth care domain reported that aggression had increased in the past 12 months. Youth care workers are the most likely to leave the care and well-being sector and youth care is the only industry in which workers are more likely to switch to another industry within the care and well-being sector.

In sum, the year 2021 is far from straightforward. In terms of happiness and well-being of young adults, the effects of the COVID year may still be rippling out (e.g. fewer social contacts). That said, does the world not look different from 2019 anyway, with a European war, nitrogen crisis and housing shortage (especially for young people)? The question is whether and to what extent decreasing personal well-being will keep pace with the use of youth assistance in the future. Looking at the scores on social indicators, there is also reason for optimism: there were fewer young people in social support families in 2021, juvenile crime fell, fewer young people became victims of crime, the youth labour market partially recovered, and substance use among 12 to 24‑year-olds remained the same.

However, the final impact of social circumstances will vary by region and municipality due to the very different reliance on youth care. It is striking how well the municipality of Urk and related small municipalities score on a social factor such as labour participation in relation to low use of youth assistance. In terms of the use of youth assistance, Rotterdam is approaching Urk’s scores, while Rotterdam scores significantly lower on other lists on labour participation, and young people growing up on income support. For increasing mobility in the labour market, youth care does not seem so well-sorted, especially if the use of youth care continues to rise. The fact that the use of youth care is related to many factors and the challenging thing is to determine which ones are the deciding factors for a municipality and region. The search for a grip on policy then begins by looking for data on scores on social indicators. These initially raise more questions than they provide answers. Historical usage provides some insight, but this diminishes as social circumstances change. Policy-makers’ search should then start with factors that can and cannot be influenced by policies.

The Youth Monitor aims to raise questions using data on the use of youth care and social indicator scores. In order to get a better picture of the reality behind these figures, governments, scientists and other parties involved are challenged to carry out further (benchmark) research in order to explain these different scores between municipalities and regions. For this research, a multitude of data can be used, of which only a core selection is presented in the annual report of the Youth Monitor. The search can begin on the CBS National Youth Monitor website and end at the (Dutch) Youth monitor Statline database or the regular Statline database, where numerous data can be combined.

Young people in the Netherlands (Chapter 2)

At the beginning of 2022, 28 percent of the Dutch population was under the age of 25, representing 4.9 million young people. This group included 3.3 million 0 to 17‑year-olds and nearly 1.6 million 18 to 24‑year-olds. Sixteen percent of the minor children lived in a single-parent family. The share of children living in single-parent families has risen steadily over the past two decades, as has the number of children living with unmarried parents. At the beginning of 2020, 2 in every 10 minors (over 700 thousand among a total of 3.3 million) had parents who were not living together. This was 1 in 10 among infants (0–1 years) and 3 in 10 among 17‑year-olds. Most young people, 92 percent, were born in the Netherlands or have two parents who were born in the Netherlands, while they themselves were born in another country. One million young people of this total group of 4.5 million young people had at least one foreign-born parent, making them part of the second generation. Almost 400 thousand young people were born abroad and have at least one parent who was also born abroad, making them part of the first generation. By early 2022, the Netherlands thus had a total of almost 1.4 million young people with backgrounds in other countries. After a drop in 2020 in the number of young immigrants, this immigration picked up again in 2021. In 2022, many Ukrainian refugees came to the Netherlands after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the period between 24 February and 10 October, over 38,700 young people, 7 in 10 percent of them minors, with Ukraine as their country of origin were registered as residents of a Dutch municipality (including those who have since emigrated again).

Youth care and Veilig Thuis (Safe Home) (Chapter 3)

In 2021, 461 thousand young people received youth care. This constitutes nearly 10 percent of all young people in the Netherlands aged up to 22 years. In this group, 450 thousand young people received youth assistance, 41 thousand young people received youth protection, while 8 thousand young people went through juvenile rehabilitation. Compared to 2015, the number of young people who went through juvenile rehabilitation and the number of young people who received youth protection was down by 29 percent and 1.4 percent respectively. In 2021, 7,910 young people newly entered youth protection, which is 16.2 percent less compared with 2019. New entrants are young people who have not previously received youth protection in the four years prior to the reporting year. The number of new young people in juvenile rehabilitation has also been decreasing since 2019. In 2019, the number was 3,480 young people. In 2021, the number was 2,810. Often, a youth protection measure goes hand in hand with an out-of-home placement (mandatory or voluntary). To get an idea of the household composition of these young people’s families, we examined whether both of the young person’s legal parents live together in the same household. For 14 percent of the children placed under a family supervision order, it can be established that they were living at the same address as their parents on 1 January 2021. For 67 percent, the parents were not living at the same address. Among young people placed under guardianship, 10 percent can be identified as having parents who live at the same address and 44 percent whose parents do not live at the same address. The number of guardianship trajectories that have ended within youth protection gradually increased between 2015 and 2019 to then decrease as of 2019 to 1,700 in 2021. The share of guardianship trajectories concluded because of parental authority being restored increased in 2021 compared to 2020, from 32 to 53 percent. The share of trajectories concluded because of the young person’s coming of age decreased over the same period, as did the share of trajectories in which custody transferred to a foster parent. In 2021, Veilig Thuis (Safe Home) organisations received 119 thousand reports on (suspected) child abuse or domestic violence. In addition, Veilig Thuis provided advice to victims, bystanders or professionals 134 thousand times that year. This meant that unlike the previous two years, Veilig Thuis provided more advice in 2021 than it received reports.

Growing up under unequal circumstances (Chapter 4)

By the end of 2021, the share of minor children growing up in income support families was 6 percent, thus representing 201 thousand children in families on income support, nearly 3 thousand less than at the end of 2020. The number of children growing up in income support families thus fell for the fifth year in a row. In the Netherlands, there are more children growing up in income support families than children growing up in millionaire families. There were 127 thousand children in millionaire families at the end of 2019 and 204 thousand children in families on income support at that time. Together, both groups make up around 10 percent of the minor young people in the Netherlands. Three quarters of the minor children growing up in families on income support were born in the Netherlands. One quarter of them are foreign-born and therefore migrants. Although many children in families on income support were born in the Netherlands, they are often of foreign origin, as at least one of their parents was born abroad. Approximately 38 percent of the children in families on income support were born in the Netherlands, but have two foreign-born parents and about 10 percent have one parent who was born abroad. Children with a Syrian origin formed the largest subgroup within the group of children in families on income support with a foreign origin at the end of 2021, followed by Moroccan children. With respect to the minor children growing up in millionaire families, 96 percent of them were born in the Netherlands and 84 percent are of Dutch origin. Only 4 percent were born in another country. Children with a millionaire background almost always live in a two-parent family, children growing up in income support families often only live with their mother. Unlike children in millionaire families, children in families on income support grow up in households that often struggle financially. In 2020, both parents of children with a millionaire background were working in 82 percent of the families. In income support families, the single parent or either of the two parents often worked little or not at all, with social assistance being the main source of income. Less than 30 percent of children growing up in income support families had their own savings account on 1 January 2020. More than 50 percent of children growing up in millionaire families already had a savings account by their first birthday. Among 16‑year-olds, 68 percent of teens growing up in income support families had their own income in 2020, versus 75 percent of teens growing up in millionaire families. Among 17‑year-olds, those teens growing up in income support families had a slightly higher rate of having their own income, 92 percent to 88 percent. In the course of 2020, however, 1 percent of 17‑year-olds growing up in income support families received income support themselves. The income of 17‑year-old teens with a millionaire background was slightly higher in 2020 than the income of teens in families on income support, over €4,400 versus nearly €4,100. The teens with a millionaire background generated more income from work, the teens in families on income support received higher educational allowances.

School (Chapter 5)

In the 2021/22 school year, there were 185 thousand pupils in the third year of secondary education, excluding practical education and special education schools at secondary level. Just over half of these pupils, 50.5 percent, attended prevocational secondary education (VMBO), while the other pupils attended senior general secondary education (HAVO) or pre-university education (VWO). Schools may set their own policies on pupils repeating a year or progressing to the next grade. Schools will mainly consider the marks, the attitude to learning and any relevant circumstances. In 2020, schools temporarily changed their policies on repeating and progressing years in response to the coronavirus crisis. The share of pupils in upper secondary education who progressed to the next year was higher in 2020 than in previous years. This share was lower again in 2021. The share of pupils in the second stage of all types of education who repeated the same year was actually higher in 2021. There was a most significant increase in the number of repeaters in years 4 and 5 of senior general secondary education (HAVO). Due to the pandemic, the pass-fail policy for final exam candidates was also adjusted in 2020 and 2021. In 2021, the school exams and central exams proceeded, but with a number of measures set in place. For instance, exam candidates were allowed to spread the central exams over two time periods, allowing extra preparation time for these subjects. There were also two resit options instead of one and it was possible to not include the final grade of one subject (excluding Dutch, English or maths) in the results determination. The sector-related component in prevocational secondary education (VMBO) was concluded with a school exam as opposed to a central exam. The composition of the group of pupils taking exams in 2021 is different from that prior to the pandemic, as there were almost no pupils who had failed the previous school year. In 2021, the pass rate of young people in secondary education dropped compared to 2020, but it was still higher than the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior general secondary education (HAVO) experienced the biggest drop, with 91 percent of exam candidates passing in 2021, down from 98 percent in 2020. The pass rate of pupils in both the advanced vocational programme (VMBO-K) and the basic vocational programme (VMBO-B) of prevocational secondary education has remained virtually unchanged. Pupils who have completed the theoretical programme (VMBO-T) or the combined programme (VMBO-G) of prevocational secondary education or those who have obtained a diploma in senior general secondary education (HAVO) were more likely to progress within secondary education in 2021, and less likely to move on to intermediate vocational education or higher education. Among those pupils having obtained a diploma in prevocational secondary education, young women more often chose an educational programme in healthcare and young men were more likely to opt for the construction industry, renovation and engineering sector.

Work (Chapter 6)

In 2021, the labour market saw a rise in the number of people in employment and a decline in unemployment. This mostly corresponds with the situation for young people aged 15 to 26. The unemployment rate fell both for young people in education (from 11.1 percent to 10.2 percent) and those not in education (from 7.4 percent to 5.3 percent). The net labour participation rate increased for both groups. Almost three quarters, 74 percent, of young people were part of the employed labour force in 2021. Among young people in education, 68 percent were in employment; 87 percent of the young people not in education were part of the employed labour force. The labour participation rate among young people is highly age-dependent. The older the young people are, the more often they will be in employment, and the more often they will be working full-time. In a given week, young pupils and students aged 15 to 26 worked 17 hours on average, against young people not in education working 35 hours. In 2021, 16 percent of pupils and students worked as loaders, unloaders or shelf stackers. This was considerably less for those young people not in education, at 4 percent, although even for this group, these occupations are still among the most frequently practised. Retail sales assistant also proved to be a popular job among both young people in education and not in education. By 2021, the share of employed young people suffering a high workload (always or often) had risen, after it had initially dropped in the first COVID year. In 2020, 25 percent of pupils and students and 30 percent of young people not in education suffered a high workload. In 2021, this was 27 percent and 33 percent respectively. Work-related mental fatigue complaints were also more common in 2021. Retail sales assistants were the most frequently mentally fatigued among both pupils and students and young people not in education. In 2021, 6 percent of employees in education aged between 15 and 27 were dissatisfied with work. This was 8 percent for those not in education. Young people were relatively often dissatisfied with the salary. The second aspect which dissatisfied young employees was the inability to determine their own working hours.

Substance use and lifestyle features (Chapter 7)

In 2021, 6 percent of young people aged 12 to 17 said to have smoked occasionally. There was no difference between boys and girls. Among young adults aged 18 to 24, 3 out of 10 adult men and 2 out of 10 adult women sometimes smoked. Among young adults, the share of smokers decreased between 2014 and 2021, while the share of smokers among young people aged 12 to 17 did not change in this period. In 2021, 30 percent of young people aged between 12 and 17 reported that they had drunk alcohol in the past 12 months. This was 80 percent among young adults. Since 2014, the guideline for young people aged 12 to 17 has been to not drink alcohol. For people aged 18 or over, the recommendation since 2015 has been: do not drink alcohol or drink no more than one glass daily. Among both young people aged 12 to 17 and young adults aged 18 to 24, the share of persons who observe the guideline on alcohol consumption has not changed between 2014 and 2021. Seven in ten young people aged 12 to 17 and 3 in 10 young adults observed the guideline on alcohol consumption in 2021. In 2021, 7 percent among young people aged 12 to 17 said they had used cannabis in the past 12 months. This share was 25 percent among young adults. These percentages more or less equalled the period between 2014–2020. Averaged over the period 2018 to 2021, 12 percent of all children aged 2 to 11 years were overweight. During the same period, 3 percent of children aged 2 to 11 years were severely overweight (obese). Being overweight was twice as common among children of parents with a low educational level than among children of highly-educated parents. For obesity, it was even three times as common. Among children with parents who have a low educational level, the obesity percentage was at 6 percent, against 2 percent obese children of highly educated parents. Also, fewer children aged 1 to 11 years with parents who have a low educational level ate enough fruit and vegetables. Children aged 0 to 11 of less-educated parents were more exposed to indoor tobacco smoke on average over the 2019–2021 period than children from highly-educated parents.

Crime (Chapter 8)

Slightly under 47 thousand young people were registered as crime suspects in 2021. That is 1.6 percent of all young people aged 12 to 24. Between 2010 and 2018, the share of suspects among 12 to 24‑year-olds dropped by more than half. After an increase in 2019, this share decreased again in 2020 and 2021. The share of registered suspects is lower among young women relative to young men. In 2021, this share was highest among 19 and 20‑year-old young men; 3.8 percent of men aged 20 were registered as suspects. Among girls, the peak was among 15‑year-olds, with 0.8 percent of all 15‑year-old girls registered as suspects. There are also differences between young men and young women in the type of crime of which young people are suspected. For example, police rarely register girls as suspects of drug and (fire) arms offences, and the share of vandalism and crimes against public order is much lower among girls than among boys. The highest share of registered suspects among boys and girls is in the category of property crime. Among young adult men, road traffic offences, such as drink-driving or failing to stop after an accident, are also proportionally common. The share of young people aged between 15 and 24 years who had been victims of traditional crime, including violence, property or vandalism offences, declined between 2012 and 2021, from 40 to 24 percent. The percentage of young people who were victims of online crime was 20 percent in 2021. At 9 percent, young people were most often victims of hacking and online scams and fraud. Five percent of young people had been confronted with online threats and harassment. Twenty three percent of juvenile victims of traditional crime said they are experiencing or had experienced emotional or psychological problems, physical injury and/or financial problems as a result of their victimisation. This was 20 percent for victims of online crime. Whereas 46 percent of young people occasionally felt unsafe in 2012, this was 43 percent in 2021. Feelings of unsafety in one’s own neighbourhood declined from 21 to 18 percent over the same period. In 2021, 14 percent of young people reported that they had felt discriminated against at some point in the past twelve months. Young adults were more likely to feel discriminated against than young minors, and young women were more likely to feel discriminated against than young men.

Young people in the Caribbean Netherlands (Chapter 9)

At the start of 2022, there were 7,300 young people aged up to 24 years living in the Caribbean Netherlands: 26 percent of the population. In the Caribbean Netherlands, 57 percent of young people aged up to 17 years lived with both parents and 31 percent with one parent. The rest of the young people in the Caribbean Netherlands, 12 percent, were members of another household. This means, for example, that they live with their partner, and children if any, in the home of their parents or their partner’s parents, have moved in with a brother or sister who lives independently or live with an uncle or aunt. Compared to 2012, the share of young people on Bonaire living with one or both parents increased in 2021. Minor children were less likely to be members of another household, and young adults were less likely to live independently. On St Eustatius, more young people were living with one parent than with both parents in 2021; in 2012, more young people were living with both parents. On Saba, the share of young people living with one parent increased compared to 2012, which applies to both minors and young adults. On balance, more young people born in the European Netherlands aged up to 4 years and aged between 12 and 17 relocated to Bonaire than in previous years. The number of 4 to 11‑year-olds who were born in the European Netherlands and relocated to Bonaire has in fact been falling since 2019. Among 18 to 24‑year-olds, the net migration in 2021 was almost identical to that in 2020; though in both years it was higher than in 2019. Especially people in their twenties from the European Netherlands more often relocated to the island than in 2019. In the academic year 2021/22, over 4,800 pupils were enrolled in publicly funded primary, secondary or intermediate vocational education in Caribbean Netherlands. Over half of these pupils were enrolled in primary education. There were 1,571 pupils in secondary education on Caribbean Netherlands. On Bonaire, 725 pupils were participating in senior secondary vocational education (MBO). On Saba and St Eustatius, 21 and 68 pupils respectively attended lessons based on the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ). It is also known how pupils in secondary education and senior secondary vocational education up to 17 years of age on Bonaire and Saba are experiencing their time at school. In 2020, for example, over half of the pupils on Bonaire and Saba liked their school, and 52 percent and 42 percent of pupils respectively enjoyed going to school. Boys more often liked their school than girls and also enjoyed going to school more frequently than girls. In 2020, 41.3 percent of the 15 to 24‑year-olds in the Caribbean Netherlands were in paid employment. The share of young people in employment was highest on Bonaire that year by 42.7 percent. On Saba, 41.7 percent were employed and on St Eustatius 31.9 percent were employed.

Well-being of young people (Chapter 10)

In 2021, 81 percent of young adults in the age category 18 to 24‑year-olds reported that they were generally happy and 77 percent of them were satisfied with their lives. Compared to 2020, they were thus less happy and less satisfied with their lives. The personal well-being of young adults also fell significantly after 2020, from 70 to 63 percent. For the first time, young adults score lower on all three aspects than people aged 25 or older. Among the over-25s, the percentage with high personal well-being has actually shown an upward trend since 2015, and there is no difference in personal well-being between 2021 and 2020. In 2021, young adults mostly experienced a lower personal well-being in the areas of trust, social life, health, financial future and education or profession. In 2020, 64 percent had a high personal well-being in the area of trust, whereas in 2021, it was 52 percent. In 2020, 80 percent of young people gave their social life a score of 7 or higher, against 72 percent in 2021. The decrease on the self-perceived health dimension is in the same order of magnitude. Especially, the share of young people who are satisfied with their mental health has fallen, from 74 percent in 2020 to 68 percent in 2021. There is a significant difference in personal well-being between men and women; men aged 18 to 24 are more likely to enjoy a high level of personal well-being (73 percent) than women in that age group (53 percent). This difference was less pronounced in 2020, when it involved 74 percent of men and 66 percent of women. As in the previous year, men in 2021 especially enjoyed a higher level of personal well-being in terms of health, financial future and security. In 2021, young people were also less likely to have weekly social contacts with family members, friends or neighbours and more likely to experience strong feelings of emotional loneliness. The percentage of young adults experiencing strong emotional loneliness went up from 9 percent in 2019 to 15 percent in 2021.

Working in youth care (Chapter 11)

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of young people making use of youth care. This potentially has an impact on the people who have to provide this care. The majority of workers in the broad youth care domain are women, relatively young and highly educated. At an average of 29.5 hours per week, they work more hours per week than on average in the care and welfare industry (27.4 hours) and most of them have a permanent employment relationship. The most common occupations among employees in the broad youth care domain are youth care workers (17 percent), personal support workers (9 percent), outpatient support workers (8 percent) and home support workers (7 percent). In the fourth quarter of 2021, 49 percent of employees in the broad youth care domain felt their workload to be too high. This is above average in the care and well-being sector. Also, 64 percent of employees felt that their workload had increased in the past year. Three quarters of employees in the broad youth care domain were satisfied with their jobs and 66 percent were satisfied with the organisation they work for. This means they are slightly less satisfied with their work than average. A total of 65 percent of employees most often reported agreeing with the statement that they can grow and develop at work. On the other hand, a comparatively small share of 31 percent agreed with the statements that they are sufficiently paid for the work that they do and that there is enough time to properly care for clients or patients. In the fourth quarter of 2021, 74 percent of employees working in the broad youth care domain said they had experienced aggression at work by clients or patients in the past twelve months. This is above average in the care and well-being sector. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, that group did become smaller in the broad youth care domain, when 81 percent of employees reported having encountered it at some point in the past twelve months. Aggression at work may include physical or verbal aggression, but also bullying, threats, sexual harassment or discrimination. In the broad youth care domain, verbal aggression by clients or patients was by far the most frequently reported by 67 percent of employees.