Samenvatting

Concerns about the resilience of democracy are accompanied by calls for schools to strengthen their citizenship education. This article describes the findings from the Dutch participation in an international comparative study in 2022 on the citizenship competences of young people in the second grade of secondary education. The findings are compared to countries similar to the Netherlands and to results from 2016. We focus in particular on social differences. Overall, the citizenship competences of Dutch students invariably lag behind those of peers in comparable countries. Regarding citizenship education, Dutch youth experience less of an open classroom climate for discussion than students in comparable countries. It is striking that there are relatively large differences between students in terms of sociodemographic background and educational track. Students’ citizenship knowledge strongly correlates with their perception of the openness of the classroom climate for discussion. Students’ expected electoral participation is most strongly correlated with indicators of their disposition toward engagement. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and some policy recommendations.