Nearly a quarter of children in NL have divorced parents

New research shows that 24% of 15-year-olds have parents who are no longer together, just a slight increase from a decade ago, according to statistics bureau CBS.

In 2025, 3.3 million children were living in the Netherlands. Around 782,000 had parents who are separated.

Twenty years ago, around 13% of 15-year-olds had divorced parents. That number increased steadily, reaching 23% in 2016, when it plateaued.

Most children of separated parents lived with their mother, particularly the youngest: 93% of 4-year-olds, falling to 83% by the age of 17.

Since 1995, the number of children with same-sex parents has also increased. In 1995, around 1,000 children had two legal mothers. By 2025, that number was more than 12,000. There are far fewer children with two legal fathers, just 500 in 2025.

The number of parents who never marry has increased sharply in the last 30 years. In 1995, of 15-year-olds with two legal parents, 80% lived with their married legal parents. Only 1,500 children of that age lived with unmarried parents.

By 2025, that share had fallen to 54.7%.