Netherlands residents with mental health complaints climb to record high

The number of Netherlands residents struggling with somber feelings, stress, and other mental health complaints rose to a record high last year. More people reported these types of psychological problems in Statistics Netherlands’ (CBS) annual health survey than in all previous editions of the study.

CBS has questioned thousands of people about their health every year since 2001. The results confirmed that in “coronavirus year” 2021, more people did not feel well than before the pandemic. However, the CBS results can’t substantiate a connection with the pandemic because the stats office’s researchers did not specifically ask about it in this long-term study.

Teenage girls and young women most often report struggling with mental health problems: twice as often as young men and boys. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of women and girls between 12 and 25 said they felt very anxious or depressed in the four weeks before completing the survey. That was 12 percent among boys and men in the same age group.

Of all women aged 12 and older, 18 percent said they had mental health problems, compared to 12 percent of men. In both cases, the percentage has never been this high. The survey doesn’t identify or diagnose mental health disorders, focusing only on how people feel.

The National Survey on Working Conditions, published by CBS and TNO at the same time as the health survey, showed that psychological fatigue due to work is also more common among women than men. Young women and girls also significantly more often report experiencing pressure to perform, both to meet their own expectations and those of others.

After the flu and a cold, mental health complaints are the most frequently cited reason for absenteeism from work. Of the women who called in sick in 2021, 7 percent mentioned mental health complaints, overwork, or burnout as the reason. The same was true of 5 percent of men who were absent from work last year.