March 20, 2024

Over half of Dutch people work from home sometimes

Over 5 million people in the Netherlands worked from home sometimes or most of the time in 2023, representing 52 percent of all people in work. This is a higher proportion than in any other EU country. CBS reports this on the basis of new figures on working from home taken from the Labour Force Survey.
Most people who worked from home did so for some of the time, i.e. for no more than half of their usual working hours. Between 2021 and 2023, this number rose by almost 700 thousand, to 3.8 million. At the same time, the number of people who usually worked from home fell by over 600 thousand to 1.3 million. On balance, the total number of homeworkers rose from 5.0 million in 2021 to 5.1 million in 2023. However, because the total number of people in work grew even faster, the proportion of homeworkers actually fell from 54 percent in 2021 to 52 percent in 2023.

 

Working from home, working population (aged 15-74)
Jaartal Most of the time (x mln) Sometimes (x mln)
2021 1.9 3.1
2022 1.5 3.5
2023 1.3 3.8

 

Workers in ICT and creative professions most likely to work from home

People working in ICT and in creative or linguistic professions work from home the most often. In 2023, 9 out of 10 of them did so most of the time or sometimes. A relatively high number of those in managerial positions also worked from home, but usually only some of the time. Those working in service-oriented jobs and transport or logistics jobs worked from home the least.

 

Working from home, by occupational class, 2023
Beroepsklasse Most of the time (%) Sometimes (%)
ICT 40.5 51.0
Creative and linguistic 37.0 49.8
Managerial 10.9 71.4
Business and administrative 21.9 52.0
Public administration,
security and legal		 16.9 51.4
Teaching 8.0 54.7
Total 13.2 38.8
Commercial 12.6 33.8
Care and wellbeing 5.7 38.6
Agriculture 25.6 16.5
Technical 6.9 32.5
Other 12.5 15.4
Service-oriented 5.2 9.4
Transport and logistics 0.9 4.1

In almost all occupational classes, between 2021 and 2023 there was a shift from working mainly from home to working from home sometimes, and the percentage of homeworkers decreased slightly. The difference was relatively large in teaching professions, 70 percent of whom worked from home in 2021 compared with 63 percent in 2023. This was due to the end of restrictions relating to coronavirus in the education sector, which came to an end during this period.

Average worker spent 15 hours working from home

In 2023, people worked at home for an average of almost two full working days (15 hours) per week. That was slightly less than half of all hours worked. When combined, all the hours worked from home made up almost 20 percent of the hours worked by employed people. Self-employed people worked at home more than average, at 30 percent of all the hours they worked. That figure was just over 17 percent for those working for an employer.

More homeworking in the Netherlands than in any other EU country

The Netherlands leads the pack among the EU member states when it comes to working from home. In 2022, the most recent year for which international figures are available, a majority of workers in the Netherlands worked from home sometimes or most of the time. In particular, the percentage of workers who say that they sometimes work from home is relatively high in the Netherlands. By contrast, in other countries with a high number of homeworkers, such as Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg and Ireland, the percentage who work from home most of the time is higher.

 

Working from home the EU, 2022
EU-lidstaat Most of the time (% of all those in work (aged 15-64)) Sometimes (% of all those in work (aged 15-64))
Netherlands 12.7 39.2
Sweden 18.1 26.7
Finland 23.1 17.0
Luxembourg 17.7 22.4
Ireland 25.3 10.9
Belgium 16.4 19.0
Denmark 11.8 22.0
France 12.4 21.3
Malta 11.8 16.0
Austria 12.9 14.6
Estonia 12.4 13.1
Germany 14.5 9.6
EU 27 10.2 12.2
Slovenia 8.5 13.7
Portugal 7.7 10.5
Czechia 6.3 9.4
Spain 7.6 6.3
Slovakia 5.1 8.0
Poland 4.9 7.7
Itlay 5.2 7.0
Croatia 4.6 7.3
Latvia 8.8 2.6
Lithuania 6.1 5.3
Cyprus 4.6 6.3
Hungary 2.8 7.8
Greece 2.5 7.4
Bulgaria 1.6 2.8
Romania 1.4 2.9
Source: CBS, Eurostat

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) previously published figures on working from in 2013-2020. These showed that homeworking was steadily increasing. Due to changes in the research design and questionnaire in the EBB, these figures cannot be compared with the figures from 2021 onwards.

Source: CBS Netherlands
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