Dutch Caribbean at 15, a new CBS report compares six islands

GREAT BAY--A new comparative report from Statistics Netherlands provides a consolidated, side by side view of demographic, economic, labor, education, tourism, and price trends across Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten, and the three public entities of the Caribbean Netherlands, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba.

On 10 October 2010, the Netherlands Antilles disappeared from the map, the Kingdom rearranged its Caribbean family, and a new experiment began. Fifteen years later, a comparative report from Statistics Netherlands brings the six islands back into one frame, not for nostalgia, but for a hard look at population, work, education, GDP, sector mix, tourism, and prices. The numbers do not tell a single story, they tell six, linked by water and policy, split by size and structure. The report is simultaneous baseline and mirror, useful for editors, ministers, and anyone who cares about how small economies carry big responsibilities.

Aruba took status aparte in 1986, Curaçao and St. Maarten became countries in 2010, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands. Since then, each island has kept its own rhythms, and each statistical office has kept its own methods. The new side-by-side view collects those differences in one place, notes the limits, and focuses on comparable indicators where possible. It is not a perfect stitch, it is a careful collage, with methods, caveats, and reference years flagged in the charts.

𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭: 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

Start with a headcount. In 2025, about 340,000 people lived in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, slightly fewer than the city of Utrecht. Curaçao, a little above 156,000, is largest. Aruba follows at over 108,000. Dutch St. Maarten registered just under 43,000 in 2023, which is more than the combined total of Bonaire, Statia, and Saba. On 1 January 2025 Bonaire held more than 26,000 residents, while Statia passed 3,000 and Saba just over 2,000. Most islands rose modestly since 2011, Statia dipped due to an administrative clean-up rather than confirmed shrinkage.

Bonaire broke the pattern. Its population climbed from a bit over 15,000 in 2011 to 26,600 in 2025, nearly 70 percent, with growth across ages and a sharp rise among people 60 and over. Net in-migration did most of the work. That one sentence alone reshapes every policy debate on the island, from schools to clinics to freight.

Ageing moved from background to headline. Curaçao shows the steepest arc: residents 65 and older rose from 13.8 percent in 2011 to slightly above a quarter by 2025. The BES islands sat near 15 percent 65 plus, still well above 2011 levels. These shares tell you what budgets will feel like next, health and long-term care first, pensions close behind, workforce planning everywhere.

Look at birthplace and you see how identity is negotiated in the dock and supermarket. On Bonaire, Statia, and Saba, only about one third of residents were born in the BES in 2024; a quarter came from Central and South America, another quarter from CAS countries, and on Bonaire a notable 17 percent from the European Netherlands. Aruba and Curaçao have majorities born in the CAS. St. Maarten’s tables carry different category splits across years, a reminder to check footnotes before drawing lines.

Language follows wind and current. English dominates St. Maarten, Statia, and Saba; Papiamento or Papiamentu leads on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Multilingualism is not a slogan, it is daily practice, with more than 90 percent of Bonaire residents speaking more than one language. That linguistic mix is a cultural fact and a service-delivery constraint, from classroom material to patient consent forms.

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

• Labor market: Participation rates tend to be higher on the BES islands than in Aruba and Curaçao, though age bands and survey frames differ. Unemployment rates fell from mid-2010s peaks, spiked during 2020, then declined again. Saba shows persistently low unemployment.

• Education pipeline: A significant share of young people leave to study abroad and do not return. This limits the stock of higher qualifications on island, affects productivity, and increases reliance on migrant skills.

• GDP levels and growth: Aruba and Curaçao host the largest economies by level, while per-capita GDP is highest on Statia due to small population and a few large enterprises. Index growth since 2013 shows Bonaire advancing the most, Statia contracting, and other islands recording modest gains. All islands contracted in 2020, then rebounded in 2021.

• Sector mix: Aruba is led by accommodation and food services. Curaçao shows a significant contribution from finance and related services. Trade and business services are material across the larger islands. Disclosure protections limit detail for the smallest economies.

• Tourism exposure: Cruise passenger series underline St. Maarten’s scale in cruise traffic, which heightens sensitivity to itinerary shifts. Bonaire runs smaller cruise volumes than the CAS countries.

• Prices and inflation: Cumulative inflation since 2011 diverges. Curaçao records the highest cumulative increase among the islands covered, Aruba the lowest. The year 2022 is a clear outlier everywhere. Early post-reform years in the BES show elevated price pressure during the system transition and dollarisation.

• Currencies and comparability: Aruba uses the florin. The BES use the US dollar. Curaçao and St. Maarten adopted the Caribbean guilder on 31 March 2025. For comparability, the report converts monetary series to US dollars and flags methodological differences across statistical offices.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲

The publication harmonizes indicators where feasible, labels reference years, and points to data gaps, for example St. Maarten’s population series ending in 2023, age band differences in labor statistics, and category shifts in census-based birthplace tables. The authors advise readers to treat cross-island rankings as indicative, to cite years and definitions, and to consider small-number effects in micro-economies.

𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

• Health and pensions: Rapid ageing, especially in Curaçao, will increase demand for health workers, long-term care, and sustainable pension design.

• Skills and retention: High student out-migration and low return rates constrain higher-skill availability. Governments and employers may weigh targeted scholarships with return commitments, faster recognition of foreign credentials, and sector-specific training.

• Diversification and resilience: Tourism remains the core engine, with varying balances between cruise and stayover. Sector concentration raises exposure to external shocks. Islands may review logistics, business services, and finance clusters, while aligning infrastructure and energy planning with realistic timelines.

• Social floor and inflation: Divergent cumulative inflation paths since 2011 suggest island-specific calibration for minimum wages, social benefits, and energy relief. Authorities may track freight pass-through, retail margins, and CPI basket composition.

• Currency communication and data continuity: With the Caribbean guilder introduced in Curaçao and St. Maarten in March 2025, public agencies and firms will need clear guidance on invoicing, accounting, and historical series continuity.

The islands of the kingdom added people, yet not many, and ageing quickened. Bonaire grew fast through arrivals, Statia’s totals flickered with administrative changes, Saba stayed small and steady. Labour markets healed after the pandemic, participation gaps persisted, and education pipelines still leak talent. Economies recovered, but long-run growth trails the European Netherlands. Inflation diverged, with Curaçao higher since 2011 and Aruba lower, and a global 2022 spike pressed budgets across all six islands. The report does not settle arguments, it gives everyone the same set of charts for the next round.

𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴, “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘯 15 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘴,” 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 10 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 2025.

Download the report here: https://english.rijksdienstcn.com/latest/news/2025/october/10/the-dutch-caribbean-15-years-after-the-dissolution-of-the-netherlands-antilles