Dutch people consider the affordability of care to be the most important issue for 2019. This issue is followed by the quality of care and violence on the street against care providers, respectively. These three issues leave behind other social issues such as the future of Europe (4), poverty in the Netherlands (5) and the consequences of climate change (9). This was evident from the 2019 Issues-to-Watch Research that Kantar Public conducted together with De Issuemakers. The Dutch population was asked what they expected to be the most important issue for themselves in the coming year.
The Top 10 list looks like this:
- Affordability of healthcare
- Quality of care
- Violence on the street/against emergency workers
- Future of Europe (think Brexit)
- Poverty in the Netherlands
- Basic living expenses
- Antisocial behavior and lack of tolerance
- Pollution of the seas/plastic Soup
- Consequences of climate change
- Environment and sustainability
What is striking about the research results is the high ranking of care-related issues among all population groups. However, the affordability of care is mainly an issue for highly educated people, while the less educated are mainly concerned about the quality of care. The less educated also indicate that they consider terrorism, antisocial behavior and lack of tolerance important, while the highly educated are more concerned about the future of Europe, the consequences of climate change and the pollution of the sea with plastic soup.
Finally, it is also striking that issues such as the colonial past, increasing tourism, citizenship studies and extortion of administrators are hardly mentioned.
High rating for care
This high rating for care is in line with the research that Kantar Public and De Issuemakers carried out at the end of 2018 on the issue that Dutch people found most important in 2018. This research showed that the Dutch population considered 'hospital bankruptcies' to be the most important issue of 2018.
Issues of importance to society
In the Issues-to-Watch survey, respondents were also asked which issues they believe will become the most important for society. Then violence on the street and against care providers is at the top, followed by the future of Europe and the affordability of healthcare. It is striking that issues such as poverty in the Netherlands, costs of basic living and the gap between rich and poor fall out of the top 15, and issues of terrorism, income security, gas extraction in Groningen, the tax system and healthy air or particulate matter then end up in the top 15. come. This shows a big difference between the Randstad and the rest of the Netherlands. CO2 and global warming are in the top 5 for both groups. The Randstad considers terrorism, anti-social behavior and lack of tolerance, the expansion of Schiphol/Lelystad Airport and road safety and rail safety to be the most important social issues, while for the rest of the Netherlands is mainly concerned with the affordability of healthcare, the future of Europe and the teacher shortage.
About the research
Issues-to-Watch 2019 is based on a survey among 1064 respondents, who are representative of the Dutch population aged 18 and older. A total of 142 issues were presented to the respondents. They could then indicate which issues, in their opinion, will be the most important issues of 2019. From this year onwards, the Issue-to-Watch will be carried out annually at the beginning of the year.
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