Samenvatting

Pressure on healthcare
The Netherlands is an aging country. According to the Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis
(CPB), the aging of the population will become evident in the next government’s term of office, i.e.
2022–2025, alongside an increase of healthcare costs with an annual average of 2.7% (CPB, 2019).
This trend, with regard to an increasingly aging population, is set to continue in coming decades, and
at its expected height in 2039, the Netherlands will have 4.6 million inhabitants aged 65 or older
(CBS, 2018; CPB, 2019). In addition, elderly adults are also reaching older ages. In this way, the share
of people over 80 has increased in 50 years from one in 74 to one in 25. According to the Dutch
Central Agency for Statistics in their report Population, Gender and Age Forecast 2019–2060 (CBS,
2018), around 2050, one out of every ten people will belong to the group that we now count as the
eldest.