Municipalities in Drenthe relatively often score worse on important welfare points than in the rest of the Netherlands. This is evident from the Regional Monitor for Broad Welfare of Statistics Netherlands (CBS). It concerns 42 indicators that map out, for example, well-being, living, work & leisure and safety & environment.
In addition to municipalities in Drenthe, municipalities in Groningen, Flevoland and Limburg are also relatively often at the bottom of this prosperity ranking. In our province, Emmen, Coevorden and Borger-Odoorn rank among the lower regions of the Netherlands. Tynaarlo and Midden-Drenthe achieve the best results in Drenthe.
In general, things are actually improving with regard to ‘broad prosperity’ in the Netherlands. In the last eight years, municipalities have been increasing or have remained stable. In many places, material prosperity (money that people can spend for their own pleasure), work and leisure time and safety are increasing.
On the other hand, the average opinion about living conditions is falling. This is mainly due to the fact that the distance to facilities is increasing, Statistics Netherlands notes. The amount of nature reserve per inhabitant is also decreasing in many places. A positive outcome is that the distance to public green areas is decreasing in many places, and that the amount of particulate matter and greenhouse gas emissions is falling.
Differences between municipalities can sometimes be explained by the urbanity. As a result, a municipality like Rotterdam scores differently from a municipality like Westerveld. City dwellers, for example, are more likely to have less good health, a lower median disposable income, a less safe and clean living environment and less social cohesion. Although safety seems to be increasing in (highly) urbanized municipalities, Statistics Netherlands sees.
The map with the so-called welfare indicators of Statistics Netherlands per municipality: