2.4 elderly can vote by mail this election; 13.2 million voters in total

An estimated 13.2 million Netherlands residents are eligible to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election, according to Statistics Netherlands. This includes over 2.4 million people over the age of 70, who will be allowed to vote by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic. And 810 thousand young people eligible to vote in a parliamentary election for the first time.

Netherlands residents who are 18 years old or older on election day and who have Dutch nationality are eligible to vote in the election.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the parliamentary election will look a bit different than usual. Elderly people can vote by mail, as the elderly are at high risk when it comes to Covid-19. Election day is on March 17, but polling stations will also be open on March 15 and 16. This is to give people more time to vote, so that they spread out more and there is space for social distancing.

Since the previous parliamentary election in March 2017, over 883 thousand Netherlands residents turned 18. About 810 thousand of them can vote in the parliamentary election. The other 73 thousand, 8.3 percent, are not entitled to vote because they do not have Dutch nationality.

The Netherlands counts 2.45 million people over the age of 70. 1.5 percent of them don't have Dutch nationality and will therefore not be able to vote.

Almost 93 percent of Netherlands residents aged 18 or older are entitled to vote. The rest don't have Dutch nationality. Among first generation immigrants - people born abroad who moved to the Netherlands - almost 54 percent are eligible to vote. Among second generation immigrants, people born in the Netherlands but with at least one parent born abroad, 98 percent have Dutch nationality and are entitled to vote.

Dutch living abroad can also vote in the upcoming parliamentary election, but they were not included in these figures.