Life style and (preventive) health; personal characteristics, 2014-2021

Life style and (preventive) health; personal characteristics, 2014-2021

Characteristics persons Margins Periods Smoking behaviour, 12 years or older Smoking status Smokers (%) Smoking behaviour, 12 years or older Smokers Daily smokers in the population (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Physical activity guidelines Comply with physical activity guidelines (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Physical activity guidelines Sufficiently active moderate intensity (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Physical activity guidelines Sufficient muscle-/bone-strength. activ. (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Weekly sporter (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Subscription sports provider (%) Physical activity, 4 years or older Member sports club (%)
Total Value 2019 20.4 14.8 49.0 54.1 82.5 53.8 23.7 23.1
Sex: Male Value 2019 23.7 17.0 51.1 57.2 81.5 54.6 21.3 27.4
Sex: Female Value 2019 17.1 12.7 47.0 51.0 83.5 52.9 26.1 18.8
Age: 4 to 11 years Value 2019 . . 55.9 55.9 99.8 63.2 14.5 45.2
Age: 12 to 15 years Value 2019 1.7 0.8 42.9 44.1 94.3 73.8 12.3 53.1
Age: 16 to 19 years Value 2019 15.9 8.2 47.0 50.7 85.9 66.6 29.8 39.1
Age: 20 to 29 years Value 2019 30.6 17.7 58.2 64.7 83.2 67.7 38.9 25.8
Age: 30 to 39 years Value 2019 26.0 18.3 48.0 53.9 80.8 56.4 28.5 19.6
Age: 40 to 49 years Value 2019 23.4 17.8 51.1 56.4 79.7 55.8 26.0 18.4
Age: 50 to 54 years Value 2019 23.9 19.6 51.0 56.6 80.6 51.6 24.6 20.0
Age: 55 to 64 years Value 2019 21.0 17.2 48.7 55.3 81.6 45.5 20.6 15.5
Age: 65 to 74 years Value 2019 14.1 12.2 49.6 55.1 81.7 41.6 19.1 13.3
Age: 75 years or older Value 2019 7.7 6.9 27.0 32.7 64.2 26.4 11.4 9.5
Age: 12 to 17 years Value 2019 5.6 2.8 40.5 41.7 93.5 71.3 18.0 50.1
Age: 18 years or older Value 2019 21.7 15.9 49.1 55.0 79.6 51.2 25.2 18.3
Level of educ.: pre-prim.and prim. educ. Value 2019 26.5 25.5 28.4 34.6 63.8 20.7 9.4 6.8
Level of educ.: lower sec. education Value 2019 25.7 22.5 39.8 47.0 71.8 33.4 15.9 9.8
Level of educ.:upper secondary Value 2019 24.0 18.8 47.8 54.2 79.3 48.4 22.8 17.6
Level of educ: bachelor degrees Value 2019 15.6 9.2 53.0 58.8 85.3 61.6 30.7 21.1
Level of educ: master degrees and doc. Value 2019 10.7 4.2 62.3 64.8 90.5 72.2 36.8 25.1
Level of education: unknown Value 2019 20.4 18.4 43.6 52.6 72.9 29.7 13.2 9.2
Source: CBS.
Explanation of symbols

Table explanation


This table contains data on life style and on the (preventive) health examination of the Dutch population in private households. These data can be grouped by several personal characteristics.

Data available from: 2014-2021

Status of the data: final.

Changes by July 31, 2023
None, the table has been discontinued.

When will new data be published?
Not applicable anymore. This table has been replaced, see paragraph 3 for a link to the new table.

Description topics

Smoking behaviour, 12 years or older
Questions on smoking behaviour are asked to persons aged 12 years or older.
Smoking status
Smokers
The percentage of persons in the population aged 12 years or older who answered ‘Yes’ to the question: ‘Do you ever smoke?’
From 2014 to 2017, the introductory text for this question was: ‘Now some questions about smoking.’ From 2018 to 2019 this text was changed in: ‘Now some questions about smoking. We mean smoking of all kinds of tobacco products here, but not the use of an electronic cigarette.’ From 2020 this introduction text was replaced by ‘Now some questions about smoking. We mean smoking of all kinds of tobacco products here, but not the use of an electronic cigarette or a device in which tobacco is heated (heat stick, heat-not-burn), such as the IQOS’.
Smokers
Daily smokers in the population
The percentage of persons in the population aged 12 years or older who answered Yes’ to the question ‘Do you smoke every day?
Physical activity, 4 years or older
The questions on physical activities were asked to every person aged 4 years or older, and are based upon the so-called ‘Short Questionnaire to Assess Health Enhancing Physical Activity’ (SQUASH). This questionnaire aims to provide a complete view of a person’s physical activity. Frequencies and durations of the following physical activities were asked for:
1.  Commuting to work or school by cycle or on foot,
2.  Activities at work or in school,
3.  Housekeeping activities ,
4.  Walking, cycling, gardening and doing odd jobs in spare time,
5.  Practicing sports.
From 2017 onwards, Statistics Netherlands publishes the new physical activity guidelines (drawn up by the Dutch Health Council) for people aged 4 years or older.

In order to get a better understanding of the physical activity of young people of 12 years and older, questions relating to physical education were added to the questionnaire starting in 2019. This means that for all children, aged 12 or older attending secondary school, questions about sport and physical education and sport activities organized by school were added. For children from 4 till 12 years, these questions about physical education were already included in the questionnaire.
Because of this, data from 2019 onwards about complying physical activity guidelines are not comparable with data of 2016-2018, especially for young people from 12 years or older.
Physical activity guidelines
The physical activity guidelines were drawn up by the Dutch Health Council at the end of 2017. This new guideline replaces the Dutch Norm of Healthy Exercise, the norm for fitness and the combination norm. Adults should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least two and a half hours every week, spread over several days, such as walking and cycling. In addition, they should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least twice a week. Young people from 4 to 17 years old should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least one hour every day, and they should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least three times a week.
An explanatory note has been published about the 2020 figures on this subject, see table explanation.
Comply with physical activity guidelines
Percentage of people of 4 years or older who comply with the physical activity guidelines. Adults should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least two and a half hours every week, spread over several days, such as walking and cycling. In addition, they should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least twice a week. Young people from 4 to 17 years old should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least one hour every day, and they should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least three times a week.

In order to get a better understanding of the physical activity of young people of 12 years and older, questions relating to physical education were added to the questionnaire starting in 2019. This means that for all children, aged 12 or older attending secondary school, questions about sport and physical education and sport activities organized by school were added. For children from 4 till 12 years, these questions about physical education were already included in the questionnaire.
Because of this, data from 2019 onwards about complying physical activity guidelines are not comparable with data of 2016-2018, especially for young people from 12 years or older.
Sufficiently active moderate intensity
Percentage of people of 4 years or older who are sufficiently active at moderate intensity, such as walking and cycling. Persons aged 18 and over should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least two and a half hours every week, spread over several days. Young people between the ages of 4 and 17 should be physically active at moderate intensity for at least one hour every day.
Sufficient muscle-/bone-strength. activ.
Percentage of people aged 4 years or older who perform sufficient muscle- and bone-strengthening activities. Persons aged 18 and over should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least twice a week. Young people aged 4 to 17 should perform muscle- and bone-strengthening activities at least three times a week.
Weekly sporter
Percentage of people of 4 years or older who practise sport at least once a week. From 2016 onwards, the percentage of weekly sporters aged 4 years or older is published.
An explanatory note has been published about the 2020 figures on this subject, see table explanation.
Subscription sports provider
The percentage of persons of 4 years or older that has a subscription to a fitness centre, swimming pool or another provider of sport.
Member sports club
The percentage of persons of 4 years or older that is member of a sports club.