Dutch dangers: falling and bee stings easily outweigh terrorist threat

In a world of extraordinary geopolitical upheaval, the Dutch can take some comfort, perhaps, from the fact that they are, statistically, more likely to die from a bee sting than from a terrorist attack.

Not alone that, but – contrary to the notion that everyone, irrespective of nationality or geographical location, must learn to live with a backdrop of permanent insecurity – the Netherlands, again statistically, is becoming safer rather than more dangerous.

That's according to the newly published Atlas of Security or De Bosatlas van de Veiligheid, which analyses the statistics behind real-life threats encountered every day, from kitchen mishaps to road accidents to "acts of God", the last increasingly in the form of storms or other extreme weather.

The book, by geographer Henk Leenaers, shows that the overall number of violent deaths, whether from murder, terrorism or accidents at work, has been falling in recent decades – while the number of deaths from "force of nature incidents" is on the rise.

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This, Mr Leenaers suggests, shows the degree to which our perception of danger fails to match reality.

“We tend to think of the things that can harm us in terms of traumatic dangers, such as a plane crash or a terrorist attack, which are, statistically, quite unlikely to happen. On the other hand, we tend to overlook real hazards, routine things such as too much exposure to sunlight, for instance.”

The fall

In fact, the book shows the number one cause of violent death in the Netherlands is from falling, by accident, often in a domestic setting, with a high proportion of the casualties older and already frail.

By contrast, the Netherlands has an enviably low incidence of terror attacks. The last was in 2004 when film-maker, Theo van Gogh, was stabbed to death by a member of the radical Hofstad Network – although Europol figures show one failed attack in 2016.

However, there's no doubt about the extent to which domestic statistics smooth over the harsh reality of attacks such as the shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, in which 193 of the 298 who died were Dutch.

“Of course, there are many serious dangers and we do a lot to prevent them”, says Leenaers.

“But when you look at the statistics, they don’t tell you that such dangers don’t exist. They tell you that, in general, things have been getting better.”