What is the impact of coronavirus?

2020 will above all be remembered as the year in which the coronavirus crisis erupted. What started as a medical emergency soon became a crisis affecting many aspects of life. The all-embracing effect of the pandemic and the measures taken to combat it are clearly evident from the Well-being in times of coronavirus dashboard launched by CBS.

A great deal happened all at once following the partial lockdown in March. A number of sectors were closed down, while in others employees started working from home in huge numbers. Public transport was largely avoided, and road traffic also declined sharply. Air traffic had already been grounded. Registered crime decreased and far fewer marriages and partnerships were entered into than was usual for springtime. The economy experienced an unprecedented contraction.

In the Netherlands we are now in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The medical emergency is not over, nor is the economic one. Several areas of life had already sprung back to former levels by the end of the summer, such as registered crime and the number of marriages and registered partnerships. However, this was by no means the case for other areas, such as air traffic or total consumption. Furthermore, the second wave,

and the measures taken to combat it, are already affecting various aspects of life. For example, the number of people boarding public transport this summer was already close to 2019 levels, but is once more far below that. For some time, the roads were almost as busy as they had been in 2019, but that situation is again receding further and further away.

Mortality higher than in 2018

Every year more people die in winter than in the other seasons, especially when there is a flu epidemic. In 2018, the flu epidemic lasted as long as eighteen weeks. At that time, over 9 thousand more people died than normal for that period. This is referred to as ‘excess mortality’.

In the first nine weeks of the current coronavirus pandemic, it is estimated that the excess mortality amounted to almost 9 thousand people. Cause-of-death certificates show that the excess mortality in this period was entirely caused by COVID-19. The excess mortality is therefore about the same as during the flu epidemic in 2018, but the number of deaths was reached in only half the time. Measures were also taken to limit contact between people. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic has not yet run its course. Since the end of September we have again been seeing excess mortality, coinciding with the second wave in the Netherlands. Total mortality in the first ten months of 2020 is much higher than in the same months in previous years. Compared to 2018, the difference amounted to 8.5 thousand.

Show tableDeathsHide tableDeaths

Deaths

week1)	2020	2019	2018	2017
2	3364	3262	3359	3637
3	3157	3152	3364	3487
4	3046	3179	3322	3626
5	3162	3139	3403	3574
6	3193	3183	3513	3446
7	3199	3254	3660	3417
8	2959	3220	3691	3328
9	3097	3065	3937	3152
10	3104	3172	4092	3054
11	3217	3225	3733	2843
12	3615	3043	3430	2778
13	4459	3013	3225	2850
14	5084	2898	3040	2764
15	4979	2902	2860	2810
16	4303	3036	2760	2713
17	3907	2956	2663	2778
18	3378	2806	2645	2769
19	2986	2772	2641	2802
20	2774	2821	2606	2801
21	2770	2873	2674	2772
22	2726	2730	2776	2701
23	2682	2734	2679	2624
24	2691	2647	2557	2643
25	2694	2692	2601	2627
26	2659	2836	2619	2691
27	2636	2725	2726	2697
28	2618	2761	2671	2520
29	2526	2586	2704	2674
30	2672	3006	2767	2571
31	2659	2731	2760	2510
32	2638	2629	2745	2657
33	3206	2613	2605	2540
34	2845	2617	2612	2545
35	2731	2783	2527	2576
36	2679	2553	2613	2570
37	2733	2642	2539	2707
38	2710	2580	2706	2715
39	2881	2751	2696	2669
40	2988	2717	2806	2641
41	2996	2912	2760	2763
42	3224	2879	2739	2706
43	.	2867	2671	2676
44	.	2856	2815	2726
45	.	3015	2798	2797
46	.	3060	2761	2916
47	.	3023	2859	2917
48	.	3045	2907	2886
49	.	3018	2968	3027
50	.	3161	3017	3218
51	.	3253	3041	3079
1) To show only full weeks, weeks 1, 52 and 53 are not included.

Economy hit unusually hard

The economy has been especially hard hit by the fight against the coronavirus. After a contraction by 1.7 percent in the first quarter, the Dutch economy shrank by 8.5 percent in the second quarter, relative to the previous quarter. This was the most severe contraction ever recorded. These two quarters of contraction have wiped out five years of economic growth.

Compared to other European countries, however, the Dutch economy got off lightly. The German economy shrank by 9.7 percent in the second quarter, the Belgian economy by 12.1 percent and the French economy by 13.8 percent. Within the European Union, the Spanish economy was hit hardest, with a contraction of 17.8 percent in the second quarter. Finland was the least affected. But the Finnish economy also shrank, by 4.4 percent. The graph of GDP development from 2017 onwards clearly shows how unprecedented the situation is. The fluctuations in the quarterly development and the differences between countries before 2020 pale into insignificance when compared to what came afterwards. The first two quarters of 2020 saw an exceptional contraction, one which differed greatly from country to country.

Show tableGross domestic product (year-on-year % volume change)Hide tableGross domestic product (year-on-year % volume change)

Gross domestic product (year-on-year % volume change)

		Finland	Netherlands	Germany	Belgium	France	Spain
2017	Q1, 2017	97,0	94,4	97,0	96,1	95,8	94,0
2017	Q2, 2017	97,4	95,2	97,6	96,4	96,5	95,0
2017	Q3, 2017	97,8	95,9	98,5	96,5	97,1	95,6
2017	Q4, 2017	99,0	96,7	99,3	97,2	97,9	96,2
2018	Q1, 2018	99,1	97,1	99,1	97,4	98,0	96,7
2018	Q2, 2018	99,0	97,7	99,6	97,7	98,2	97,1
2018	Q3, 2018	99,2	97,9	99,3	97,9	98,6	97,7
2018	Q4, 2018	99,6	98,3	99,6	98,7	99,3	98,3
2019	Q1, 2019	99,9	98,8	100,2	98,8	99,8	98,8
2019	Q2, 2019	100,8	99,2	99,7	99,1	100,0	99,2
2019	Q3, 2019	100,6	99,5	100,0	99,5	100,2	99,6
2019	Q4, 2019	100,0	100,0	100,0	100,0	100,0	100,0
2020	Q1, 2020	98,6	98,5	98,0	96,5	94,1	94,8
2020	Q2, 2020	94,3	90,1	88,5	84,8	81,1	77,9
Source: Eurostat.
Adjusted for seasonal influences and any working-day effects.

The questions

1. How does CBS calculate the figures?
2. How do we use our land?
3. How fast is the population growing?
4. How are the various animal species doing?
5. What are our top concerns?
6. Where do the emigrants go?
7. Who use social media the most?
8. How isolated do we feel?
9. What are our favourite wedding dates? What about partnership registrations?
10. How many under-18s are receiving youth assistance?
11. What about cyber crime?
12. What are the most popular majors?
13. What are the major religions?
14. How many overnight stays?
15. How many people shop online? And the items they buy...
16. Who are eligible to vote?
17. What are young people doing online?
18. How many adults smoke or have smoked?
19. Where were people in the Caribbean Netherlands originally born?
20. Where do Caribbean Dutch children live?
21. How much internet usage in the Caribbean Netherlands?
22. How many people (never) work from home?
23. How many millionaires in the Netherlands?
24. Has our purchasing power gone up or down?
25. Which jobs have the highest levels of mental fatigue?
26. How many employees are members of a trade union?
27. How many passengers flying into and out of the Netherlands?
28. How much nitrogen is emitted at livestock farms?
29. How many dwellings in the Netherlands?
30. How much is our average mileage in electric cars?
31. What do we import from China?
32. Which prices are up, which are down?
33. What is our production of frozen fries?
34. How many enterprises in the Netherlands?
35. How much energy do we get from biomass?
36. How much do we recycle?
37. Which flower bulbs are most common?
38. What is the impact of coronavirus?