Number of centenarians increasing, most living in Zeeland

© ANP / Marcel van den Bergh
On 1 January 2023, the Netherlands had 1,572 residents who were one hundred years old or more. This is more than twice as many as twenty years ago. Relatively most centenarians live in the province of Zeeland. Compared to other countries in the European Union, the Netherlands has relatively few centenarians. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on a new analysis for The Netherlands in numbers.

How many centenarians are there? How many centenarians are there? 965 women 196 men 100-year-olds 534 women 99 men 101-year-olds 351 women 61 men 102-year-olds 146 women 32 men 103-year-olds 176 women 12 men 104-plus How many centenarians are there? 10 men 10 women 99 534 101-year-olds 61 351 102-year-olds 196 100-year-olds 965 32 146 103-year-olds 12 176 104-plus

Over the past decades, the number of centenarians has increased virtually every year. In the past three years, there were just over 2,500 centenarians. Of the 2,572 centenarians on 1 January 2023, the vast majority were women (2,172). In general, women live longer than men. CBS expects the number of centenarians to reach more than 5 thousand by 2040. The number of people in this age group is rising because, compared to previous generations, more children were born and older people are living longer.

Most centenarians in Zeeland

Relatively most centenarians live in the province of Zeeland (4.2 per thousand over-80-year-olds), followed by Flevoland (4.0 per thousand over-80s). Limburg (2.2 per thousand over-80s) and Noord-Brabant (2.4 per thousand over-80s) count fewest centenarians.

On average, Dutch municipalities have 2.9 centenarians per thousand over-80s in their midst. Twenty-one of the 342 municipalities did not have any registered centenarians. The islands Vlieland (1 centenarian in 67 over-80s) and Schiermonnikoog (1 centenarian in 73 over-80s) counted most centenarians in relative terms on 1 January 2023.

Relatively most centenarians in Ireland

The Netherlands counted 3.0 centenarians per thousand over-80s in 2022, placing it in the tail end of the median group in the European Union. Ireland leads the list with 15.4 centenarians per thousand over-80s. Latvia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria have the lowest number of centenarians per thousand over-80s.

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