NETHERLANDS
Population
Total population in Netherlands is 17,081,507 by 1st January 2017. 12.51% of the population is foreign born (Eurostat). The median age of Dutch is 41.47 which is slightly more than the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary election was held in March 2017. The prominent parties, vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy |
21.3 |
Liberal |
Party for Freedom |
13.1 |
Conservative |
Christian Democratic Appeal |
12.4 |
Christian democracy |
Democrats 66 |
12.2 |
Liberal |
GreenLeft |
9.1 |
Green/Ecologist |
Socialist Party |
9.1 |
Communist/Socialist |
Labour Party |
5.7 |
Social democracy |
ChristianUnion |
3.4 |
Christian democracy |
Party for the Animals |
3.2 |
Special issue |
50PLUS |
3.1 |
Liberal |
Political Reformed Party |
2.1 |
Conservative |
Think |
2.1 |
Liberal |
Forum for Democracy |
1.8 |
Conservative |
Electoral System
The system used in Netherlands is List PR with open lists in which parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get distributed to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives(idea.int). The voter turnout in 2017 election was 81.93 % (idea.int)
Quality of Democracy
Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy. Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is most free and 7 is least free. According to Transparency International, Netherlands is ranked 8th least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 82 out of 100.
Gender Equality
36% of the parliamentarians are women currently while there is no legislated quota for women candidates. (idea.int)