NL residents have more confidence in politicians, institutions

Netherlands residents' confidence in politicians, judges and the police increased last year compared to 2019, according to a survey of almost 8 thousand people by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Confidence in politicians in particular increased. In 2019, around 39 percent of Netherlands residents said they had confidence in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. Last year, that increased to 52 percent. Confidence in the police increased from 77 percent to 77.8 percent, and confidence in judges from 73.3 percent to 77 percent.

The stats office could not give a reason for the increase in confidence in these institutions. "It remains difficult to pinpoint this without conducting in-depth interviews," CBS sociologist Tanja Traag said to RTL Nieuws. But she thinks the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic played a role in this.

People's confidence in institutions have been increasing steadily for some time, she added, even before the pandemic. According to Traag, this may have to do with the composition of the Dutch population changing. Immigrants, whether they be brand new to the country or a few generations in, tend to be more positive about institutions. And this group is growing in the Dutch population.

Statistics Netherlands also surveyed Netherlands residents about their other living conditions like their health, financial situation, working conditions, and home situation. The researchers found that the personal well-being of the population is about the same as in 2019. Last year, 66.2 percent of the population said they had a high personal well-being, compared to 64.7 percent the year before.

Traag stressed that it is not true that all Netherlands residents lived through a year of the coronavirus pandemic with their personal well-being mostly unaffected. "This is an average of all Dutch people, but there is also a group that is having a hard time," she said to RTL. And this may have prompted others to appreciate their own lives more, she said.