What are our top concerns?
In a survey conducted in 2018, CBS asked adults for their opinions on five social issues in the Netherlands: crime, population density, the multicultural society, the social attitudes of the population and environmental pollution. Do they consider this no problem, a (minor) problem or a serious problem? The infographic shows the percentage of men and women who consider a social issue to be a serious or very serious problem.
Nearly half consider crime to be a serious problem
Crime (48 percent) and environmental pollution (45 percent) are most often seen as (very) serious problems.noot1 In addition, 28 percent say that the social attitudes of the population are a (very) serious problem, 25 percent refer to the population density and 20 percent mentioned the multicultural society. On the other hand, 32 percent of people do not consider the multicultural society to be a problem, while 4% think the same of crime.
Elderly people and people with a low level of education in particular are more likely to say that they find an issue a serious problem. An exception to this is environmental pollution: highly educated people more often find this a serious problem than less educated people.
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Crime | 47.4 | 49.5 |
| Environmental pollution | 41.8 | 48.8 |
| Social attitudes | 27.5 | 29.1 |
| Population density | 25 | 24.5 |
| Multicultural society | 21.9 | 17.5 |
More women than men consider environmental pollution to be a serious problem
More women (49 percent) than men (42 percent) view environmental pollution as a (very) serious problem. The multicultural society is viewed as problematic more often by men (22 percent) than women (18 percent). There are no differences of opinion between men and women on the other issues investigated.
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Crime | 47.4 | 49.5 |
| Environmental pollution | 41.8 | 48.8 |
| Social attitudes | 27.5 | 29.1 |
| Population density | 25 | 24.5 |
| Multicultural society | 21.9 | 17.5 |
The questions
- How does CBS calculate the figures?
- How do we use our land?
- How fast is the population growing?
- How are the various animal species doing?
- What are our top concerns?
- Where do the emigrants go?
- Who use social media the most?
- How isolated do we feel?
- What are our favourite wedding dates? What about partnership registrations?
- How many under-18s are receiving youth assistance?
- What about cyber crime?
- What are the most popular majors?
- What are the major religions?
- How many overnight stays?
- How many people shop online? And the items they buy...
- Who are eligible to vote?
- What are young people doing online?
- How many adults smoke or have smoked?
- Where were people in the Caribbean Netherlands originally born?
- Where do Caribbean Dutch children live?
- How much internet usage in the Caribbean Netherlands?
- How many people (never) work from home?
- How many millionaires in the Netherlands?
- Has our purchasing power gone up or down?
- Which jobs have the highest levels of mental fatigue?
- How many employees are members of a trade union?
- How many passengers flying into and out of the Netherlands?
- How much nitrogen is emitted at livestock farms?
- How many dwellings in the Netherlands?
- How much is our average mileage in electric cars?
- What do we import from China?
- Which prices are up, which are down?
- What is our production of frozen fries?
- How many enterprises in the Netherlands?
- How much energy do we get from biomass?
- How much do we recycle?
- Which flower bulbs are most common?
- What is the impact of coronavirus?
Notes
Social issues
Respondents were asked for their opinions on the following social issues in the Netherlands: crime, population density, the multicultural society, the social attitudes of the population and environmental pollution. People could indicate if they experience these issues as a problem with the following answer categories: 1) no problem, 2) a minor problem, 3) neither a minor nor a serious problem, 4) a serious problem, 5) a very serious problem and 6) I don't know.
Respondents who did not answer a question have been disregarded. This concerned 3 to 4 percent of the respondents for the various questions. For the description of the results, the categories are condensed into no problem (score 1), a (minor) problem (score 2 to 3), a (very) serious problem (score 4 to 5) and the group that says they do not know.