The Contribution of Illegal Activities to National Income in the Netherlands

Abstract

Illegal activities such as smuggling, prostitution, and the production and sales of illicit drugs contribute to the national income of a country. In practice, however, they are not included in the statistics, because there are hardly any reliable estimates about these activities. Recently, Statistics Netherlands has started research into the share of illegal activities in the national income. This article presents the estimates for 1995 through 2008. The total contribution of illegal activities to the national income of the Netherlands increased from 1,800 million euro in 1995 to almost 3,500 million euro in 2008, equaling 0.6 percent of gross domestic product. Drugs accounted for more than 50 percent of the total income from illegal activities in 2001. In 2008, this was down to less than 40 percent, whereas finding illegal employment rose from about 10 percent in 1995 to 33 percent in 2008.