Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten form together with the Netherlands, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are special municipalities within the Kingdom. Together they make up the Caribbean Netherlands. These six islands as a whole form the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

The study was conducted primarily through desk research, using reliable online sources. In addition, interviews were held with key figures in the fields of the arts, culture and education on each of the islands (e.g. directors of the departments of culture and education).

An extensive network of contacts was also consulted in order to access the necessary documentation, such as the cultural policy documents on the various islands.

Not all data were always up to date or available. This is especially true for school drop-outs, number of pupils, organisations and representatives in the arts and cultural education sector. Not all of the websites consulted were fully functional.

As the research progressed, it became clear that social media, especially Facebook, is the most common means of sharing information with the public. The Facebook pages of the various organisations provided essential details and updates on their most recent activities.

Given the multilingualism of the islands and the language in which most documents were presented, it was decided to present the results in Dutch and English. The results are presented separately for each island in the following articles: