A million households more by 2045

The number of households in the Netherlands is expected to grow fast over the next few decades. Moreover, the households will be structured differently in the future.

Mainly more one-person households

According to the new household forecast the number of households is expected to increase from over 7.4 million now to 8.5 million by 2045, followed by a decrease to 8.4 million by 2060. The increase will be mainly in one-person households. By 2060 some 44 percent of all households will consist of one person. The current ratio is 36 percent.

Households by type, actual and forecast

More older singles

According to the forecast, the number of one-person households will increase for another 40 years. By 2050 the Netherlands will have 3.7 million one-person households, over one million more than now. Nearly half of them will consist of older people. Currently 31 percent of the singles is over 65.

The number of one-person households is expected to rise sharply in the next few decades as the population ages and people’s partners die or move to a nursing home. Also more divorces are expected than in the past, creating more, smaller-sized households.

The growth in the number of one-person households is expected to halt by 2050. The number of singles dying or taken into care will have risen sharply under the influence of the greying of the population.

One-person households by age, actual and forecast

More unmarried couples living together

The number of couples is expected to rise in the near future and should reach 4.4 million by 2025. This is about 160 thousand more than now. Then the number of couples is expected to fall by about 230 thousand until 2060.

More couples will be living together informally, without marriage or registered partnership. Currently 80 percent is married or has a registered partnership. This is expected to decrease too 70 percent by 2060.

Living together without marriage will also become less of a temporary phase, and will be more often the form for parents raising children. In 1995 some 20 percent of the unmarried couples had children living at home. In 2010 this had increased to 40 percent. This is expected to grow to nearly 50 percent by 2035.

Married and unmarried couples, actual and forecast

Coen van Duin