Rotterdam, July 2, 2025 – Almost 1 in 5 (19.8%) Dutch companies paid their invoices late in 2024, despite stricter legislation and ongoing economic uncertainty. This is according to the latest figures from business data expert Altares Dun & Bradstreet. Although this marks an improvement compared to 2023 (23.9%), it is notable that large companies not only pay late more often, but also with more serious delays. Nevertheless, the Netherlands still ranks among the top five most punctual payers in Northern Europe.
Upward trend in payment behavior
Dutch companies paid 80.2% of their invoices on time in 2024. This marks the fourth consecutive year of slight improvement in payment behavior. For comparison: in 2023, 76.1% of invoices were paid on time. The share of invoices paid more than 90 days late also decreased, from 0.4% to 0.3%. This shows that the Netherlands remains resilient despite geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.
Large companies are still slower to pay
Just like in previous years, a clear pattern emerges: the larger the company, the worse the payment behavior. Very small companies paid 82.2% of their invoices on time, while this share lags far behind at only 38.6% for large companies. The legislation introduced in 2023 to improve this has so far had little effect on the payment behavior of large companies.
Among micro-enterprises (0–5 employees), the share of late payments has decreased, while for small companies (6–49 employees), the level is between that of 2022 and 2023, and for medium-sized companies (50–259 employees), there is hardly any change. However, large companies continue to lag behind the rest. It is important to emphasize, though, that these delays usually do not involve extremely long payment arrears.
Recovery in various sectors
In contrast to previous years, some sectors actually showed an improvement in their payment behavior in 2024. The industry and transport sectors, in particular, saw a strong increase this year. In the industry sector, the share of timely payments rose from 62.9% to 69.1% (+6.2 percentage points), and in the transport sector from 63.3% to 69.9% (+6.6 percentage points). In the construction sector, however, the share of invoices paid on time declined from 76.8% to 75%. A decrease was also observed in the textile sector, from 75.7% to 75.1%.
Although payments more than 90 days overdue are generally becoming less common, the industry sector is an exception. In this sector, the percentage of extremely late payments actually increased, rising from 0.20% in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 0.30% in the same quarter of 2024.
Netherlands in the European top, Belgium falls behind
With 80.2% of invoices paid on time, the Netherlands remains among the best-paying countries in Northern Europe. Only Denmark (94.2%), Poland (87.5%), and Russia (81.3%) perform better. Belgium once again lags at the bottom of the list, with only 38.1% of invoices paid within the agreed terms.
“For the first time in four years, Dutch companies are paying more than 80% of their invoices on time again. At the same time, the risk of bankruptcy remains at pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the Dutch economy is resilient despite challenging geopolitical conditions.
Although companies generally pay more punctually, it is noticeable that large enterprises consistently lag behind. This pattern has persisted for years, and despite stricter legislation, there has been little improvement in their payment behavior. SMEs and micro-enterprises drive the positive trend, but large companies cause payment delays in the supply chain, putting pressure on the liquidity of smaller suppliers,” says Barry de Goeij, Senior Data Scientist at Altares Dun & Bradstreet.
