Well-being ‘elsewhere’: summary
| Theme | Indicator | Position in the European Union | Position in EU ranking | Trend (2018-2025) | Most recent (average) mutation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade and aid | Imports of goods from low-income countries | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | Increase well-being | Increase well-being (2024-2025) |
| Trade and aid | Imports of goods from lower-middle-income countries | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Trade and aid | Imports of goods from upper-middle-income countries | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | Increase well-being | No change (2024-2025) |
| Trade and aid | Imports of goods from high-income countries | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Trade and aid | Official development assistance | 2024: 5th out of 27 | High | No change | No change (2023-2024) |
| Trade and aid | Remittances | 2024: 6th out of 27 | High | No change | No change (2023-2024) |
| Environment and resources | Fossil fuel imports | 2024: 27th out of 27 | Low | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Fossil fuel imports from LDCs | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | Decrease well-being | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Imports of metals | 2024: 24th out of 27 | Low | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Imports of metals from LDCs | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Imports of non-metallic minerals | 2024: 22nd out of 27 | Low | Increase well-being | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Imports of non-metallic minerals from LDCs | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Biomass imports | 2024: 25th out of 27 | Low | No change | No change (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Biomass imports from LDCs | Insufficient data (quality) | No data | Decrease well-being | Increase well-being (2024-2025) |
| Environment and resources | Land footprint | 2023: 4th out of 27 | High | Increase well-being | No change (2022-2023) |
| Environment and resources | Material footprint | 2023: 7th out of 27 | High | No change | Increase well-being (2022-2023) |
| Environment and resources | Greenhouse gas footprint | 2023: 16th out of 27 | Middle | No change | No change (2022-2023) |
Well-being ‘elsewhere’ describes the consequences of choices that people in the Netherlands make for the well-being ‘here and now’ and ‘later’ of people elsewhere in the world. The Netherlands has a significant footprint in the world, which has positive and negative effects on the well-being of current and future generations in other countries.
Colour codes and notes to the dashboards in the Monitor of Well-being
The choices that people in the Netherlands make in the course of their lives have consequences for people in the rest of the world. These consequences can be positive, such as the creation of jobs and higher incomes, but they can also be negative, such as increased pressure on resources and the environment.
Trade and aid
While the value of goods imported from low-income countries to the Netherlands is rising, the vast majority still come from high-income and upper-middle-income countries. As a result, these are also the countries where the impact on jobs and incomes is felt most strongly. Only 0.2 percent of the Netherlands’ goods imports come from low-income countries.
In 2024, the Netherlands fell short of the OECD’s standard for development aid, which is 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI). Development aid amounted to 0.6 percent of the Netherlands’ GNI in 2024. Income transfers from people resident in the Netherlands to non-residents in other countries and the salaries of non-residents stood at 1.5 percent of GDP. This put the Netherlands towards the top of the EU ranking in 2024 (6th out of 27 countries). The actual effects on well-being ‘elsewhere’ are determined by how the money is spent by the recipients.
Environment and resources
Part of the Netherlands’ imports consist of raw materials. The extraction of these raw materials is often accompanied by environmental pressures in the exporting countries. The Netherlands imports more raw materials per capita than most other European countries. In 2024, the Netherlands had the highest per capita imports of fossil fuels in the EU.
Consumption by citizens and government in the Netherlands is requiring ever less land. Despite this downward trend, however, more than three times the land area of the Netherlands was still required in 2023. The amount of raw materials required also decreased in 2023. The most recent data (from 2023) shows that the Netherlands’ raw materials footprint fell by 11.7 percent. The greenhouse gas footprint is stable. In 2023, 12.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalents were emitted per inhabitant. Compared to other EU countries, Dutch consumption requires little land and use of raw materials abroad.
Imports of biomass and fossil fuels from the 44 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are no longer stable and are both trending upwards. Imports of fossil fuels from LDCs rose sharply in 2025 due to a shift in imports from non-LDCs to LDCs. In 2025, 2.3 percent of all raw material imports came from LDCs.
The picture for well-being ‘elsewhere’ is probably overly positive, as many factors are not easy to measure. For example, it is difficult to determine the quality of the jobs created in other parts of the world by Dutch imports, since it is not yet possible to measure poor working conditions or the use of child labour and forced labour in the value chains of Dutch consumer goods.
Moreover, the figures on the environment and raw materials are compared with countries which, like the Netherlands, have some of the largest footprints in the world. The United Nations’ Spillover Index measures the positive and negative impacts that each country has on all other countries. Although the Spillover Index is not accurate enough to be used for statistical monitoring, it does provide an indication of the relative positions of the 27 EU member states (Sachs, Lafortune & Fuller, 2024; see also Fanning et al., 2022). The Netherlands is near the bottom of this ranking (164th out of 167 countries). This means that negative effects on other countries of economic activity in the Netherlands far outweigh the positive effects. The EU country with the highest position is Bulgaria, which is in 118th place.