Nearly a tenth of the Dutch economy runs on data

Strong shift towards generating insights from data 

Our report shows that a shift is taking place in the Netherlands from collecting and organising data in databases towards generating insights from data (through data science). Investments in data science grew (adjusted for inflation) from 17.4 billion euros in 2013 to 32.2 billion euros in 2024. That represents an increase of 86 per cent. Baarsma: 'This shows that value creation is increasingly moving from collecting and storing data towards analysing and intelligently applying data. This data-driven way of working aligns with the transition from a knowledge economy to an intelligence economy'. 

'There are still organisations that think they work in a data-driven manner because they collect information. However, our research shows that real value only emerges when data are analysed and converted into insights. That can only lead to one conclusion: shift your focus from owning data to extracting value from that data.' 

Absolute and relative data investments 

In absolute terms, the health and welfare sector invested the most in data products in 2024, namely 19.5 billion euros. The healthcare sector is often associated with staff shortages and budget cuts, not with data investments. Yet enormous amounts of money go towards data collection in healthcare (think of patient records, diagnostic data, treatment registrations), stemming from its legal obligations. 

However, when we look at data investments per FTE (data intensity), the financial services and real estate sector and the information and communication sector score highest. Data intensity indicates the extent to which data are interwoven with daily work. Sectors with high data intensity invest relatively more in data science. A sector such as health and welfare invests most in data collection and databases. Baarsma: 'The public sector stores data because it must, the private sector because it wants to. Companies are more focused on extracting value from data than public organisations. That doesn't mean it cannot be different in the public sector. Healthcare could also realise the value of data capital by deploying data much more broadly for higher quality and labour productivity'. 

Veronique Roos-Emonds, member of the board of PwC Netherlands, also sees an opportunity for organisations to extract more value from data. 'Data form the basis of decision-making in organisations. For companies, therefore, the most important question is no longer whether data have value, but how they can structurally harness that value. That starts with understanding their own data chain: where are data collected, where does value remain untapped and which links need to be strengthened? The findings of this research offer executives concrete tools to better utilise the value and predictive insights from data.' 

Further increasing the value for the Dutch economy 

One of the conclusions in our report is that data products represent an ever-increasing value for the economy. To increase that value even further, we make several recommendations to policymakers and organisations: 

• Invest in data intensity to drive economic growth 

Our report demonstrates a correlation between investments in data and economic growth. One per cent more data intensity (spending per FTE) is associated with 0.13 percentage points higher economic growth in the following year. Baarsma: 'Data investments may be a cost item for a company or institution, but at a macroeconomic level, those investments generate future economic growth. This makes data investments comparable to investments in infrastructure or education: they are investments in the future'. 

• Addressing labour shortages in professions that create the most data value 

There are significant staff shortages in data-intensive roles. Professions such as ICT specialists, engineers and business analysts are scarce, whilst they generate the most data value. Baarsma: 'The report shows that resolving these shortages can unlock substantially more value for the Dutch economy. It's a clear signal to policymakers: invest in education and labour market policy, otherwise we're leaving billions on the table'. 

• Deploy AI as a catalyst for extracting value from data 

AI makes it possible for many more people to work with data. The use of AI lowers the threshold for teachers, policy advisers and people in commercial roles, for example, to extract insights from data. In data-intensive professions, the deployment of AI means that people can extract even more value from data, and faster. Our report shows that an increase in AI usage of seven per cent is associated with a rise in data product intensity per employee of 0.38 per cent. 

Barbara Baarsma: 'Data-related knowledge and skills are no longer a niche but a basic requirement in today's and tomorrow's labour market. 54 per cent of all professions already spend at least ten per cent of their working time on data-related tasks. Data skills have therefore long ceased to be relevant only for ICT specialists. Anyone who wants to maintain their position in the labour market must invest in knowledge about data and its application. It's a responsibility of companies to facilitate this, but also the responsibility of individual employees to take it up. The government also has a role: invest in education and labour market policy and facilitate a more data-driven economy, otherwise we'll be leaving billions on the table in the future'.