Three-quarters of people donate to charity

© ANP / Egbert Hartman
In 2023, 76 percent of people in the Netherlands aged 15 or older reported that their household had donated to charity in the previous twelve months. The share of people who donate to charity has increased since 2021, and households in higher income groups are more likely to give than lower-income households. This is according to the Social Cohesion and Well-Being survey conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), in which over 22 thousand people aged 15 or older took part in the period 2012-2023.
In recent years, the percentage of the population making charitable donations has risen from 68 percent in 2021 to 73 percent in 2022, and further to 76 percent in 2023. This includes fixed or one-off donations made by the household in the form of money or goods in the past twelve months.

People on highest incomes are one and a half times more likely to donate

The share of people who donate increases with household income: from 57 percent in the lowest income group to 82 percent of those aged over 15 in the highest income group. There is a similar relationship with household wealth. Households in the lowest wealth group are the least likely to donate, at 58 percent. The share rises to 82 percent in the highest wealth group. Millionaires are slightly more likely to give to charity: 86 percent of them do so.

Older generations more likely to donate than younger people

The percentage of donors rises from 58 percent among those aged 15-24 years, to 80 percent among those aged 65-74 years. Women (at 76 percent) are more likely than men (at 69 percent) to report that their household has donated money or goods to charity in the previous twelve months.

Households in Limburg least likely to donate

People in the province of Limburg were the least likely to donate to charity: 68 percent of them did so, while in all other provinces the share was over 70 percent. People in Zeeland are the most generous: 76 percent of them donated to charity. The shares in Fryslân, Overijssel and the province of Utrecht were also above average, at 75 percent. In very highly urbanised municipalities, fewer households donated (68 percent) than in not very urbanised (76 percent) or non-urban municipalities (74 percent).