There are currently some three million single person households in the Netherlands and that number is set to grow sharply, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

In particular, there will be a large increase in the number of single women over the age of 65, helping to take the total one person households to 3.7 million by 2050, the CBS said.

The Netherlands currently has some 7.7 million households, compared with just 2.5 million in 1950. At that time the average household consisted of four people. Today the average is just two.