2. Data

Statistics Netherlands developed a digital questionnaire for the Caribbean Netherlands Student Survey (CBS, n.d.), which was distributed among students on Bonaire, Saba, and St Eustatius in 2020 and 2024. The survey’s target population had the following characteristics: all participants were students in secondary (vocational) education; they were younger than 18 years old on 30 September of the survey year; and they were enrolled at their school when CBS received the student lists. The questionnaire was available in Dutch, English, Spanish, and Papiamentu.

The questionnaire was carried out on Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius, which allows us to make comparisons between young people living on those three islands in this article. It is not possible to make comparisons with young people in the European Netherlands.

Students in the Caribbean Netherlands

There were 1,601 students (under the age of 18 years) in secondary education on Bonaire on 30 September 2024, compared with 1,272 students in 2020. According to the National Youth Monitor’s annual report (CBS, 2024b), the number of young people on Bonaire increased during this period, particularly those aged between 12 and 17.

In 2024, Saba and St Eustatius had 112 and 219 students, respectively; those figures are similar to those in 2020.

Schools were asked to help carry out the survey; students and their parents were informed about the fieldwork by letter before the start of the survey. In 2024, the response rate on Bonaire was 46 percent. To account for non-response, a model was developed for survey weights including sex and age as weighting variables. On Saba, the response rate was 86 percent and on St Eustatius it was 73 percent. Since the response on these two island was not selective accounting for sex and age, each participant was weighted equally in order to scale up to the target population. The response to the 2020 survey was so low and selective on St Eustatius that the figures were not reliable enough for publication. This means that the data on St Eustatius cannot be compared between years.