Netherlands: Facts & Stats

Demographics

Population:

16 million inhabitants (2009) Density: 396 inhabitants per sq. km France has 21 urban areas with over 100,000 inhabitants.

The five largest are:

1. Amsterdam 739,290
2. Rotterdam 539,650
3. The Hague 473,940
4. Utrecht 255,200
5. Eindhoven 209,700

Welfare:

Social security in the Netherlands can be subdivided into social welfare benefits (sociale voorzieningen) and social insurance benefits (sociale verzekeringen). In addition, there are other arrangements which by tradition are not classed as social security but which provide financial assistance, such as the housing subsidy or statutory funding of higher secondary and university education.

Social welfare benefits are financed from central government funds. They are intended as a basic provision and are means-tested. The major form of social welfare provision comprises the social assistance benefits provided under the National Assistance Act.

Social insurance is primarily funded from the contributions paid by employees, and the system is compulsory: all employees are automatically insured and also pay a contribution. There is a further distinction between employee insurance (werknemersverzekeringen) and national insurance (volksverzekeringen). The former, as its name implies, is confined to employees; benefits are related to the pay last earned, and are received in the event of loss of pay because of illness (after the first year of absence), permanent incapacity for work and unemployment (see Unemployment Benefits Act, Disablement Benefits Act).

National insurance applies to all residents of the Netherlands; benefits are not related to pay and comprise the state old-age pension, survivors' pensions, child benefit, pensions received under the General Disablement Pensions Act and benefit under the General Act on Exceptional Medical Expenses.

Education:

The Netherlands has compulsory education from age 5 to 18 (or 16 as a study is completed which has given the student adequate professional skills to start as a professional in the labour market).

Pupils attend primary or elementary school from age 4 to age 12. After that they will continue their education at high school minimally until the age of 16; which indicates one of three tracks in the Dutch educational system.

The vocational track starts with VMBO, which is seen as the lowest level of secondary education and lasts four years. Successfully completing VMBO results in a low level vocational degree and/or gives access to higher (secondary) levels vocational education. Completion of second level vocational education results in professional skills, and gives access to further study a university of applied science.

The medium level HAVO lasts five years. After completion a student can attend a university of applied science, which award professional bachelor's and professional master's degrees. A degree at a university of applied science gives access to the university system. The highest level of high school education is VWO, which lasts six years, completion of which allows students to attend a university. University consists of a three year bachelor's degrees, followed by one or two year master's degrees. A master's degree is required to start a four year doctoral degree. Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are often (temporary) employees of a university.

Religion:

Historically the Netherlands is characterized by multitude of religions. Since the mid of the middle ages, the Netherlands was a predominantly Christian country until late into the 20th century. Although religious diversity remains to the present day, there is a major decline of religious adherence.

Currently Roman Catholicism is the single largest religion of the Netherlands, forming the religious home of some 26.3 % of the Dutch people down from 40 percent in the 1970s. The number of Catholics is not only declining, but many people who identify themselves as Roman Catholics also do not regularly attend Sunday mass. Fewer than 200,000 people or 1.2 % of the Dutch population attends mass on a given Sunday. Most Catholics live in the southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg where they make up the majority of the population. Willem Jacobus Eijk is the highest Catholic authority.

The Protestant Church of the Netherlands (PKN) forms the largest Protestant denomination, with some 11.4% of the population. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the two major strands of Calvinism: the Dutch Reformed Church (which the represented roughly 8.5% of the population) and the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (at that time 3.7% of the population) and a smaller Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (0.1%). Since the 1970s these three churches had seen a major decline in adherents and had begun to work together. The Church embraces religious pluralism.

Islam is a relatively new and fast-growing religion in the Netherlands, as per recent (CBS) statistics about 944.000 or 6% of the Dutch population are Muslims. During the 1990s, the Netherlands opened its borders for Muslim refugees from countries like Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Of the immigrant ethnic groups, 99% of Moroccans; 90% of Turks; 69% of Asians; 64% of other Africans and 12% of Surinamese were Muslims. Muslims form a diverse group. Social tensions between native Dutch and migrant Muslims began to rise in the early 21st century, with the rise and murder of populist politician Pim Fortuyn by militant animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf and the murder of Theo van Gogh by an extremist Muslim, Mohammed Bouyeri.

Judaism has been present in the Netherlands for much of the country's history and several sources claim judaism arrived in the Netherlands before Christianity. Because of its social tolerance, the Dutch Republic formed a haven for Jews that were persecuted because of their beliefs throughout Europe. Prominent Dutch Jews include Baruch Spinoza, a 17th century philosopher, Aletta Jacobs, a 19th century feminist, and Henri Polak, who founded both the socialist party SDAP and the labor union NVV. The majority of Jews lived in Amsterdam, where they formed an eighth ( 90 000 ) of the population. During the Second World War a large majority of Jews were deported and murdered in the Holocaust.

The first mentions of the Bahá'í Faith in the Netherlands were in Dutch newspapers which in 1852 covered some of the events relating to the Bábí movement which the Bahá'í Faith regards as a precursor religion. Following World War II the Bahá'ís established a committee to oversee introducing the religion across Europe and so the permanent growth of the community in the Netherlands begins with Bahá'í pioneers arriving in 1946. Following their arrival and conversions of some citizens the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Amsterdam was elected in 1948. In 1957, with 110 Bahá'ís and nine spiritual assemblies, the Bahá'í community in the Netherlands first elected its own National Spiritual Assembly. In 2005 the Netherlands had 34 local spiritual assemblies. In 1997 there were about 1500 Bahá'ís in The Netherlands.

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