The objectives about reducing smoking and being overweight from the National Prevention Agreement are still far out of sight. This is according to figures that the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Friday announced. The number of people smoking in the Netherlands or drink excessive alcohol has reduced again, but the number of smokers did not fall fast enough. The number of overweight people has even risen slightly.
In 2024, 18 percent of adults smoked, the CBS writes. Ten years ago this share was still 26 percent; Around the turn of the century even smoked More than a third of the Dutch over the age of sixteen.
A strong decrease in 25 years, but not nearly enough. In the National Prevention Agreement in 2018, the National Prevention Agreement agreed that the share of smoking adults must have fallen to 5 percent by 2040.
Decline flattened
It does not seem that that goal will be achieved, says CBS researcher Luuk Hovius. “The number of smokers is not falling fast enough, and you even see that the decrease has flattened out in recent years.” In addition, Hovius says, that the CBS did not look at the use of electronic cigarettes and vapes during this study.
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After all, these products also contain nicotine and other harmful substances, and in recent years have been increasingly popular among young adults in particular. According to the Trimbos Institute used In 2023, around 4 percent of adults regularly an e-cigarette. Last week, State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport Vincent Karremans (VVD) presented an action plan to reduce the use of vapeges.
Even when it comes to being overweight, the goals from the Prevention Agreement are by no means in sight. The agreement is that the share of overweight adults (a BMI of 25 or higher) must fall from 48 percent in 2014, to around 38 percent in 2040.
But in the last ten years the percentage has remained virtually the same: in 2024 half of the adults were overweight, the CBS writes. 16 percent even were seriously overweight, an increase of three percentage points compared to 2014.
Goals with drinking but close
A bright spot: the percentage has risen less rapidly than was expected in 2018. Then the prognosis was that by 2025 about 55 percent of adults would be too heavy, so turns out from the prevention agreement.
When it comes to excessive drinking, the goals are a lot closer. There is talk of excessive drink use as soon as men drink more than 21 glasses of alcohol per week, women are 14 glasses per week. The share of excessive drinkers was still 10 percent in 2014, in 2024 that is 6 percent – slightly more than the objective of 5 percent in the prevention agreement.