Annual Report Youth Monitor 2024 Summary

The Annual Report Youth Monitor 2024 describes the living situation of young people in the Netherlands. First, it focuses on the demographic trends among young people, followed by developments in the use of youth assistance, and then it examines the trends in a number of social themes, including children in families on income support, school, work, crime, alcohol and drug use and well-being. Chapter 9 describes the living situation of young people on the BES Islands. This year’s theme-based chapter is about young people who are neither in education nor in employment (NEETs). This summary describes the main outcomes in each chapter.

Chapter 2: Young people in the Netherlands

At the beginning of 2024, the Netherlands had over 4.9 million young people under 25, representing 27 percent of the total population. Most young people in the Netherlands, 4.4 million, were born here, and more than three-quarters of them (3.4 million) also had parents born in the Netherlands, while 23 percent had at least one parent born abroad. Almost 540 thousand young people were born abroad. After the sharp increase in the number of young people of Ukrainian origin in 2022, the number of young immigrants with Ukrainian nationality declined in 2023. The total number of young people included 3.3 million minors and more than 1.6 million young adults. At the beginning of 2024, 77 percent of minors lived with both legal parents and 17 percent with one parent. This share has increased over the past 20 years. In 2004, 12 percent of 0 to 17‑year-olds lived with one parent. The share of children living in single-parent families increases with the age of the children, as does the percentage of young people living in a blended family. This is a family where the child lives with one legal parent and that parent’s partner. At the beginning of 2024, 7 percent of 15‑year-olds were living in a blended family. This percentage has changed little over the past 20 years. In contrast, the share of 15‑year-olds living only with the legal mother rose in particular, from 11 percent in 2004 to 18 percent in 2024. Relatively few children live only with the legal father, but this too is more common than 20 years ago. The average age at which young people leave the parental home fell in 2023, with a slight decrease also recorded in 2022. This decrease is related to the larger share of teenagers and young people in their twenties who left home. In 2023, the average age of young people leaving home was 23.4 years, compared to 23.8 years in the previous year. Nevertheless, the average age at leaving home is still higher than a decade ago, when young people left home at 22.9 years on average.

Chapter 3: Youth care

The number of youth care recipients increased further from 469 thousand in 2022 to 474 thousand in 2023. This represents 1 in 9 young people up to the age of 23. The increase in the number of youth care recipients mainly involves young people receiving non-residential youth assistance. In 2023, 447 thousand young people received non-residential youth assistance and 41 thousand young people received residential youth assistance. Nearly 36 thousand young people received youth protection (family supervision order or guardianship) and 7.6 thousand young people were in juvenile rehabilitation programmes. A child placed under supervision usually continues to live at home. But in some cases, the concerns about the child are so serious that it is better for the child to be removed from the home and an authorisation for out-of-home placement is given. More than 9 thousand authorisations for out-of-home placement were imposed in 2023. The average duration of a concluded youth assistance measure was 434 days in 2023, which is an increase compared to 2015. Youth protection and juvenile rehabilitation are in some cases accompanied by the use of youth assistance. In the case of family supervision orders and guardianship, as well as juvenile rehabilitation programmes, more than half of the concluded episodes in 2023 involved youth assistance in the period before the start of the measure. Youth assistance was also provided during episodes of family supervision and guardianship in around 40 percent of cases. After the conclusion of family supervision and guardianship, youth assistance was provided in over 60 percent and 80 percent of cases, respectively. In the case of juvenile rehabilitation, youth assistance was mainly provided before the start of the measure, in 50 percent of cases, and after conclusion of the measure, in 35 percent of cases. During juvenile rehabilitation measures, youth assistance was provided in around 20 percent of cases. In approximately 2 percent of concluded family supervision measures, the young person returned within half a year. With guardianship, this happened in 3 percent of cases. Youth care is related to various characteristics, including household income and whether both legal parents are registered at the same address. The share of youth care recipients differs markedly between the various income groups: the higher the income, the lower the share of youth care recipients. Youth care recipients are more likely to have parents who are not both registered at the same address than young people who are not receiving youth care.

Chapter 4: Growing up on income support

At the end of 2023, there were 184 thousand minor children dependent on income support in the Netherlands. This is 5.7 percent of all children under 18. The number of children dependent on income support fell for the seventh year in a row, by 2 thousand compared to 2022. Children dependent on income support are relatively often born abroad or have at least one parent born abroad, and often live only with their mother. There are more children in families on income support originating from refugee countries, such as Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, than from traditional migration countries, such as Turkey, Morocco, Suriname, Caribbean Netherlands and Indonesia: 62 thousand compared to 39 thousand. In 2022, families on income support with minor children had an average monthly disposable income of 2,400 euros and a median wealth of 500 euros. Other families with minor children had a monthly disposable income that was 2.5 times higher and a median wealth of 192 thousand euros. The younger the children, the less a family on income support usually has to spend, the lower their wealth and the higher the risk of poverty. The share of families on income support under the low-income threshold has been falling since 2015. In 2022, 41 percent of families on income support with minor children in the Netherlands had to live on an income below the low-income threshold.noot1 That is substantially less than in 2021, when the share was 52 percent. This decrease is mainly due to the energy allowance. The decrease was also visible among families that were not on income support. In 2022, 2.7 percent of families that were not on income support had to get by on a low income. Poverty often endures for extended durations. In 2022, the share of families on income support that had been on a low income for at least four consecutive years was 25 percent, down from 32 percent in 2021. This marked the largest decline in years.

Chapter 5: School

Young people in the third year of secondary education were slightly more likely to be in prevocational secondary education (VMBO) in the 2023/’24 academic year than in senior general secondary (HAVO) or pre-university (VWO) education. This picture has changed little in recent years. In the 2023/’24 academic year, there were 190 thousand pupils in the third year of secondary education. Just over half of these pupils, 51 percent, were in VMBO, while the other pupils were in HAVO (23 percent), VWO (22 percent) or general secondary education HAVO/VWO (4 percent). The majority of pupils in the third year were of Dutch origin (72 percent). These are pupils born in the Netherlands whose parents were also born in the Netherlands. Half of these children attended VMBO in the 2023/’24 academic year. Of pupils with a non-European origin, 57 percent went into VMBO. They were therefore more likely to attend VMBO than pupils of Dutch origin. In contrast, pupils of European origin were less likely to attend VMBO (45 percent), in particular those born in the Netherlands. In 2023, 89 percent of the 174 thousand pupils who sat final examinations in secondary education passed. This was the lowest percentage for years and similar to 2012. The pass rate of the basic vocational programme VMBO-B was high and relatively stable at 96 percent. The pass rate among pupils who sat final examinations in the combined programme (VMBO-G) was 90 percent in 2023. This is similar to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2019, the pass rate was also 90 percent. In recent years, the pass rate among HAVO students has been the lowest of all types of school in secondary education, and this was no different in 2023, at 84 percent. This was 7 percentage points below the previous year, making it the lowest pass rate in years. In 2023, 89 percent of VWO final examination candidates passed. This was 4 percentage points lower than the previous year, but 2 percentage points higher than in 2012. Boys in the Science and Technology cluster of HAVO and VWO had the highest pass rate.

Chapter 6: Work

In 2023, there were 2.6 million young people aged 15 to 26 living in the Netherlands, 77.9 percent of whom were in paid employment. This percentage rose from 2014 to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Following a decline during the pandemic, the percentage of young people in education who were also working began to increase again. Among young people not in education, there was an initial rise in participation in the labour market after the pandemic, followed by a decline. In spite of this decline among those not in education, total net labour market participation among young people rose from 73.8 percent in 2021 to 77.9 percent in 2023. There are also young people who are not in paid employment but who have recently looked for work and are immediately available for work. This is also called the unemployed labour force. In 2023, 7.6 percent of the young labour force were unemployed. Among young people in education, this percentage was higher (8.6 percent) than among young people who were no longer in education (5.6 percent). Having an illness, condition or disability may be an obstacle to obtaining employment. In 2023, 6 percent of young people without paid work reported that having an illness, condition or disability constituted a major obstacle to obtaining employment, while another 6 percent said they experienced this as a minor obstacle. A total of 723 thousand young people not in education were in paid employment in 2023. The vast majority were employees (662 thousand), more than half of whom had a flexible employment relationship (355 thousand). The remainder of the employees had a permanent contract. Young people not in education but in employment were more likely to have a permanent contract if they were older. In addition, more young men not in education worked full-time than young women. In recent years, the number of young self-employed people has also increased. In 2023, there were 115 thousand young self-employed people, 47 percent of whom were in education. An increasing number of young self-employed people were working as personal service workers, which include waiters and bartenders. Relatively large numbers of young self-employed people also worked in the occupational segments of salespeople, authors and artists.

Chapter 7: Substance use, physical activity and overweight among young people

In 2023, more young people met the alcohol consumption guideline than in 2014 and 2015. The share of 12 to 17‑year-olds who complied with the guideline increased from 66 percent in 2014 to 69 percent in 2023. Among young adults, this share rose from 23 percent in 2015 to 30 percent in 2023. The percentage of smokers remained the same among 12 to 17‑year-olds during this period and decreased among young adults. However, e-cigarette use rose sharply between 2021 and 2023. Whereas in 2021, 1 percent of 12 to 17‑year-olds were using e-cigarettes, two years later this had risen to 6 percent. The use of vapes among young adults increased from 2 percent to 13 percent. To meet the physical activity guidelines, adults should do at least 2.5 hours of moderate or high-intensity exercise, such as walking or cycling, every week, spread over several days in the week. Children and young people under 18 should do at least 1 hour of moderate or high-intensity exercise every day. In addition, adults should do muscle and bone-strengthening activities at least twice a week, and children and young people under 18 should do such exercises at least 3 times a week. In 2023, 60 percent of 4 to 11‑year-olds, 39 percent of 12 to 17‑year-olds and 55 percent of young adults complied with the physical activity guidelines. This means that more 12 to 17‑year-olds met the physical activity guidelines than in 2014. The share of people engaging in weekly sports activities did not change during this period. In 2023, 11 percent of 4 to 11‑year-olds, 14 percent of 12 to 17‑year-olds and 25 percent of young adults were overweight. The percentage of young people who were obese was virtually the same in all age groups, at 4 to 5 percent. The percentage of overweight 4 to 11‑year-olds has not changed since 2014. However, the percentage of overweight 12 to 17‑year-olds and young adults increased over the same period, especially between 2015 and 2020. Both young people aged 4 to 17 years and young adults who are overweight are also less likely to exercise every week than people in the same age group who are not overweight.

Chapter 8: Crime

In 2023, 40 thousand young people were registered as crime suspects. That is 1.6 percent of all young people aged 12 to 22. This means that the share of young registered suspects again followed a downward trend in 2023, after increases in 2019 and 2022. The fall in the share of young suspects in 2023 occurred in all types of crime, except drug-related crimes. The share of registered suspects is lower among young women than young men. In 2023, this share was highest among 17‑year-old boys, with 3.2 percent of boys aged 17 registered as suspects. Among girls, the peak was among 14 and 15‑year-olds and was less high; of all 14 and 15‑year-old girls, 1.0 percent were registered as suspects. The highest share of registered suspects among boys and girls is in the category of property crime. Police rarely register young women as suspects of drug and (fire)arms offences compared to young men, and the share of vandalism and crimes against public order is much lower among girls than among boys. For more than half of young suspects, it was the first time that they had come into contact with the police. Young people may not only end up being involved in crime, they can also become victims of it. In 2023, 29 percent of 15 to 24‑year-olds were victims of traditional crime and 18 percent fell victim to online crime. Crimes against property were the most common type of traditional crime, with 17 percent of that age group falling victim. In addition, around 13 percent were victims of a violent crime and 7 percent were affected by vandalism. These percentages declined between 2012 and 2021, but rose again slightly between 2021 and 2023. The total percentage of victims of traditional crime among young people was 24 percent in 2021. The percentage of young people who were victims of online crime was the same in 2023 as in 2021. Nine percent of these young people encountered online scams and fraud, 6 percent of them were hacked and 5 percent were subjected to online threats and harassment. The majority of the young victims did not report what had happened to them.

Chapter 9: Young people in the Caribbean Netherlands

On 1 January 2024, a quarter of the population in the Caribbean Netherlands was younger than 25. This was a total of 7.7 thousand people aged 0 to 24 years. The vast majority of young people in the Caribbean Netherlands live on Bonaire. They totalled 6.4 thousand at the beginning of 2024, nearly 900 more than in 2019. On St Eustatius, there were 877 young people and on Saba 495. Compared to 2019, the number of young people living on these islands has declined slightly. The home situation of young people is related to their age. For example, minors usually live with one or both of their parents. This is true of all three islands. However, whether they live with both parents or with one of them varies from one island to the other. A relatively large share of children, 45 percent, on St Eustatius lived with one parent at the beginning of 2024. This share was 30 percent on both Bonaire and Saba. As young people reach adulthood, they are more likely to start living on their own. Of young people aged between 18 and 24 years on Bonaire, 23 percent were living independently at the beginning of 2024. On St Eustatius, this share was 27 percent and on Saba it was 40 percent. Of young people living in the Caribbean Netherlands, 46 percent were also born there. Between the start of 2011 and the end of 2016, a total of 3,014 young people who were not born on the islands settled on Bonaire, St Eustatius or Saba. Of this total, 1,864 young people went to Bonaire, 284 to St Eustatius and 866 to Saba. Seven years later, 68 percent of them had left the islands. This was particularly the case for Saba, where 90 percent of these young people departed again within seven years. On that island, young immigrants usually stay for one or two years. Approximately half of the young people who leave Saba after a stay of one or two years were born in Canada or the United States. These are probably students who come to Saba to pursue part of their medical training. Virtually all immigrants from North America have left after seven years. On St Eustatius, 64 percent of young immigrants had left the island within seven years, while for Bonaire, the share was 59 percent.

Chapter 10: Well-being of young people

Feelings of happiness, life satisfaction and personal well-being among young adults were significantly lower during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 than in previous years. In 2023, these aspects were still not yet back at pre-2020 levels. In 2023, 83 percent of young adults aged 18 to 24 reported that they were generally happy and 76 percent of them were satisfied with their lives. Although the share of young adults who felt happy is not yet back up to the level of 2019, it has grown slightly relative to 2022. The share of young adults who say they are satisfied with their lives is the same as in 2022. The percentage of young adults with high personal well-being is also the same as a year earlier. In 2023, 59 percent of young adults rated their personal well-being as high. For most aspects of personal well-being, there is no difference compared to 2022. Exceptions are satisfaction with regard to finance and trust. In terms of finance, personal well-being was rated lower than in 2022. For young adults, there has been a decline in the areas of participation and trust since 2021. Since 2020, young adults have reported greater participation in political activity in the 5 years preceding the interview (44 percent). In the period 2013 to 2019, participation was 39 percent. This concerns an increase in participation in unconventional activity. With regard to conventional political activity, no difference could be observed compared to previous years. In unconventional activity, there was increased participation in protest marches and demonstrations, as well as petitions on paper and online. Young women take part in political activity significantly more frequently than young adult males. This specifically concerns unconventional activity, in particular participation in paper or online petition campaigns. The young adults whose highest level of education is higher vocational education (HBO) or university were substantially more politically active. This includes both conventional and unconventional activity, but the difference is greatest for unconventional activity. Whereas 28 percent of those with at most intermediate vocational education (MBO) took part in an unconventional political activity in the last 5 years, the share for those with HBO or university was 52 percent.

Chapter 11: Young people who are neither in education nor employment

Young people living in the Netherlands are supposed to be in education or in paid employment. All those aged from 5 to 15 years are legally obliged to attend school. Young people aged 16 to 17 years who do not yet have a basic qualification are subject to the basic qualification requirement. This means they are obliged to stay in full-time education until they have a basic qualification. A basic qualification is a diploma in at least senior general secondary education (HAVO), pre-university education (VWO) or intermediate vocational education (MBO-2) level. Only those who attend a day release programme (BBL) in MBO can combine learning and working. Education prepares young people for the transition to the labour market. However, this transition is not straightforward for all young people. In 2023, there were 101 thousand 15 to 26‑year-olds in the Netherlands who were neither in education nor training, and also not in paid employment (referred to as ‘NEETs’ – Not in Education, Employment or Training). They represent 3.8 percent of all young people in this age group. The number of NEETs in the Netherlands increased slightly in 2023 compared to the two previous years. In 2021, there were 82 thousand NEETs (3.2 percent) and in 2022, the number was 90 thousand (3.5 percent). In 2023, the group of NEETs consisted principally of young people who were short-term unemployed (25 percent) and young people who were not available for work due to illness or occupational disability (24 percent). Others had already found work or intended to start an educational programme or training (18 percent); were not available for work due to family or household responsibilities (9 percent); were long-term unemployed (4 percent); or were discouraged (1 percent). For the remaining 20 percent, no underlying reason could be determined to explain why they were NEET. Of the 101 thousand NEETs, 56 thousand had a basic qualification, while 44 thousand did not. For a small proportion of NEETs, it was not known whether or not they had such a qualification. Young people with a basic qualification are more likely to have work than those without. Nowhere else in Europe was the percentage of NEETs as low as in the Netherlands in 2023.