Half of all adults will be over 50 by 2019

Half of the inhabitants of the Netherlands will be 50-plus by 2019, according to the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS).

CBS said in a statement today that the Netherlands is “graying” up. Whereas in the fifties less than one in three adults in the Netherlands was older than 50, in five years one in every two people here will be older than 50. “Then 6.9 million of the 13.7 million adults in the Dutch community will be older than 50,” CBS wrote.

The bureau was reporting from a community prognosis, that reports that as of January 1 this year, the country had 16.8 million residents, 13.3 of whom were 18 years or older. “The number of adults in the community has increased in the last couple of decennia; in 1950 less than two thirds of the community was 18 or older, now it’s almost 80 percent,” CBS stated. It said the percentage of 18-plussers will reach 81 percent by 2045.

Some parishes gray-up faster than others; as per January 1 2014 more than half of the people in 264 parishes were older than 50. “These parishes are in North Holland near Amsterdam, Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Achterhoek and Twente, South-Limburg, south of Noord-Brabant and Zeeland. Roozendaal and Laren are the most gray, with more than 65 percent of the 18-plussers being older than 50.

Least gray is Utrecht; less than 30 percent of the people there are above 50.

CBS said the shift has already prompted some changes; since 2010 there has been an increase in the number of cars owned by people older than 45, while the number of cars owned by people younger than 45 has actually diminished. Commerce has also reacted; there are 50-plus fairs, 50-plus dating sites and there is a broadcasting station for people in this age bracket.