Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Henri Faasdreef 312 P.O. Box 24500 2490 HA The Hague
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
28 October 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
28 October 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
28 October 2025
3.1. Data description
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
3.2. Classification system
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual natural gas consumption bands and tax levels.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disagregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculated the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) and are published.
Some of the taxes are refundable. Here is a description of them:
Band
Name of the tax
Component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
All
VAT
Refundable for final non household consumers
3.5. Statistical unit
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
3.6. Statistical population
Household customers: Data coming from 6 suppliers and representing 75% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 7 suppliers and representing an estimated 70% of the final non-household customers.
Data for network prices comes from 3 regional network companies and the TSO, representing 95% of all customers.
3.7. Reference area
The price data covers the entire country of the Netherlands, but excludes the three islands part of the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius).
3.8. Coverage - Time
Natural gas prices data for Netherlands are available since 2009.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and do the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
At EU level:
Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/803 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation appart from its usual dissemination chanel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release) .
At national level:
Data is sent to eurostat.
Data is sent to DG Energy.
Data is sent to IEA.
Data is publicized on the open database StatLine and approachable as open data for everyone.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
At EU level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
The data referred to shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, in the case of data relating to a company or institution, there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.
8.1. Release calendar
The release calendar of Statistics Netherlands is publically accesible. The planning is updated every week.
Data is publicized on the open database StatLine and approachable as open data for everyone.
Natural gas prices in Netherlands are published on a semestrial basis on both Eurostat's website and on the open database StatLine.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The publication of the natural gas prices does not include a news article or other press release.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Statistics Netherlands works together with other government bodies to publish energy prices annually. These are used for policy measures, input in climate debates, measuring household expenditures etc. Some consumption bands of electricity and natural gas prices are included.
Procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment are documented in the Compiler Guide.
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality assurance at Statistics Netherlands is carried out under ISO 9001.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
No formal quality assessment has been executed.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Generally, natural gas prices are particularly suited for cross-country comparisons. A key user of the natural gas prices is DG ENER of the EU Commission who uses the price data for the analysis of energy prices and costs. Another main user is the ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK), who uses the prices in their forecasts for making climate policies.
The prices per consumption band are sometimes hard to understand for users. An average price for households (and non-households) could clarify this to a certain extent. A pattern over time of these average prices is also not possible or practical, due to varying consumption volumes within the bandwidths.
For households the price per GJ is far less clear than a price per m3. Comparisons with their own natural gas bill are not user friendly with a price per GJ.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No user satisfaction consultations.
12.3. Completeness
The natural gas price data sets are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
1:1
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy of the natural gas price data with its components and sub-components can be considered to be high with the exception of the relative shares of the transmission and distribution costs which are estimated values.
13.2. Sampling error
Non-probability sampling is used. There are around 50 natural gas suppliers in this liberated market, of which the biggest ones represented an estimated 80% of the market at the start of sampling. These are the ones that have been chosen in the sample. The costs and burden for the energy companies as well as for Statistics Netherlands were taken into account. Also, the pricing mechanisms on this liberated market lead to comparable prices for both the relatively big and small players on the market. Prices are the main reason for end-users to switch suppliers.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.
13.3.1. Coverage error
No quantitative data is available to measure coverage errors.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
To our knowledge over-coverage only occurs in the consumption bands D3 and I1. The volumes and prices fluctuate more than should be expected within these bands. An estimate of the proportion cannot be given.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
The network costs are derived from administrative data, and from tariffs published by network companies. They cover end-users of these companies, accounting for 95% of the households in the Netherlands.
13.3.2. Measurement error
The questionnaires have built-in formulas that detect anomalies in input. The cells have conditional formatting, providing visual assistance for both the reporting companies and for us processing the data.
13.3.3. Non response error
The level of non-response by data providers is considered to be low. We have no indication that providers would leave out data from end-users in their reporting. Non-response could occur when data seems implausible or when there are problems at the provider that cause a delay in their reporting. This is kept to a minimum.
When a band has low or no response, the price is imputed based on the price development of the nearest left available category.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Unit non-response is on average less than 1 out of 16 providers, representing far less than 5% of the target population. Non-response can vary from suppliers for households and for non-households, and can also be a regional network company.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Item non-response cannot be rated. When a data provider leaves a certain band open, it could well be that there are no end-users in that consumption band. End-users are free to switch providers at any time of the year. They can also be assigned to a higher or lower consumption band, based on an updated view on their consumed volumes. So the customer database of data providers is continuously changing.
13.3.4. Processing error
Processing errors are assessed to be kept at a minimum. Most operations are being performed with templates and are automated. There is no quantitative information available to measure processing errors.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 2 months after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for end-users for semesters in 2022/2023/2024 were all sent within 80-90 days after the reference period.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2024 was sent 9 months after the reference period, 6 months after the mandatory deadline. An update in price information from energy suppliers was not yet uploaded to Eurostat for this semester.
Price updates are not always necessary, but when they are the updates are mostly done 6 months after the first publication.
14.2. Punctuality
The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.
100% were delivered on time.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The natural gas suppliers that are participating in the national survey operate at national level. The network companies that provide prices for the network costs are regionally bound and cover up to 95% of the countries’ network connections.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Due to a revision in methodology, comparability over time may not be assured if comparing price data that had been collected before 2009 with those collected after 2009.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Sixteen years since last break in time series.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.4. Coherence - internal
Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices.
Preparation of micro data at respondent level is estimated to cost about a working day to compile and report this data for each semester. On average 15 energy companies received a questionnaire each semester.
When available and suitable, administrative sources are used. This is now the case for all network prices, thus lowering the respondent burden.
At Statistics Netherlands, the burden is about a month per semester to process the response and compile the prices and components. In addition we consider two months of additional workload per semester due to improvements in the regular process and two weeks per year for updating the sample.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There are no planned revisions for this statistic and there is no written policy for it. Unplanned revisions occur when new insights and better data cause time series to be revised. These are to be pre-announced internally and externally.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The network prices for final non-household customers will from 2025S1, and dating back to 2017, be derived from administrative data sources. This now follows the methodology for households. Consumption data can be combined with tariffs that are published on the websites of the network companies, providing the necessary data to compile the prices. The change in methodology is carried out for the longer time-series, making sure the network prices are consistent, and price changes are not the result of varying measurement approaches.
Network tariffs distinguish between small and large consumers. This is based on the capacity of the connections. The division between households and non-households is not completely aligned with this. So, there are non-household end-users that are actually small consumers. This is now more accurately represented in the network costs. As a result, the biggest household consumption bands have also changed to represent just big households.
This increases the quality, the coverage rate, and the consistency. It also lessens the burden for respondents. The consumption data was made available this year, allowing us to change methods. The national regulator sets network tariffs each year. These tariffs are published each year on the website of the regulator and the websites of the network companies.
The change in methodology results in network price differences of varying magnitudes across all consumption bands, for both natural gas and electricity. The main cause for price differences is the more consistent allocation of various types of connections and their tariffs, to corresponding consumption bands. A more accurate pairing of tariffs and energy consumption of end-users is made possible.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Households gas prices collection: 0
Non-households gas prices collection: 0.01117334
18.1. Source data
Natural gas supply price data for household and final non–household consumers are collected from natural gas suppliers. They use their central billing system to provide for this data.
The network prices can be derived from administrative data sources. Consumption data can be combined with tariffs that are published on the websites of the network companies, providing the necessary data to compile the prices.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Semester
18.3. Data collection
Questionnaires are collected from suppliers. Administrative data from network companies, featuring tariffs per type of connection and consumption volumes are collected.
The questionnaires are in MS Excel format and can be downloaded on the webpage. There is a hyperlink called [Vragenlijst Eindverbruikersprijzen]. The companies receive a letter with username and password which they can use to upload the filled in questionnaire on this same page.
18.4. Data validation
The data is validated by using the build-in validation tools of the questionnaires that are disseminated as well as several additional checks on data provided to Statistics Netherlands.
The plausibility of the input is measured in the following ways:
prices from the correspondents are compared to their Y-1 prices;
prices are compared to the prices from other correspondents in the same band;
prices from different bands are compared with each other, to see if there is a pattern;
average volumes are checked to see if data is placed in the right consumption band;
prices for the energy source itself are compared to current prices on the traders’ markets and to the development of relevant producer price indices.
18.5. Data compilation
The weighting is based on the reported consumption volumes.
An imputation method is developed whereby a consumption band with no response can still provide a price. For this, the last known price for the same period of the previous year is updated using the year-to-year trend in prices from the left nearest category.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Imputation only occurs when there is no data available in a consumption band.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.
European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.
28 October 2025
The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.
For the households sector, these bands are:
D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.
For the final non-households sector, the bands are:
I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disagregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculated the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) and are published.
Some of the taxes are refundable. Here is a description of them:
Band
Name of the tax
Component in which it is reported
Recoverable portion of the component
All
VAT
Refundable for final non household consumers
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
Household customers: Data coming from 6 suppliers and representing 75% of the household customers.
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 7 suppliers and representing an estimated 70% of the final non-household customers.
Data for network prices comes from 3 regional network companies and the TSO, representing 95% of all customers.
The price data covers the entire country of the Netherlands, but excludes the three islands part of the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius).
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
The overall accuracy of the natural gas price data with its components and sub-components can be considered to be high with the exception of the relative shares of the transmission and distribution costs which are estimated values.
Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and do the conversion to kWh. Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
The weighting is based on the reported consumption volumes.
An imputation method is developed whereby a consumption band with no response can still provide a price. For this, the last known price for the same period of the previous year is updated using the year-to-year trend in prices from the left nearest category.
Natural gas supply price data for household and final non–household consumers are collected from natural gas suppliers. They use their central billing system to provide for this data.
The network prices can be derived from administrative data sources. Consumption data can be combined with tariffs that are published on the websites of the network companies, providing the necessary data to compile the prices.
Natural gas prices in Netherlands are published on a semestrial basis on both Eurostat's website and on the open database StatLine.
Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 2 months after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
The natural gas suppliers that are participating in the national survey operate at national level. The network companies that provide prices for the network costs are regionally bound and cover up to 95% of the countries’ network connections.
Due to a revision in methodology, comparability over time may not be assured if comparing price data that had been collected before 2009 with those collected after 2009.
