Twenty years of marriage equality in NL: 20,000 married same-sex couples

Twenty years since the introduction of marriage equality in the Netherlands, 20 thousand same-sex couples have gotten married in the country, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released. Over 19 thousand gay men and almost 21 thousand lesbian women got married in the Netherlands over the past two decades.

The Netherlands was the first ever country in the world to implement marriage equality in 2001. At midnight on 1 April 2001, then Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen marked the occasion by officiating the marriage of four same-sex couples. 

In 1998, the Netherlands made it possible for same-sex couples to enter into a registered partnership. Since 2015, this option started gaining popularity again, among both same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. Last year 44 percent of gay couples, 39 percent of lesbian couples, and 32 percent of heterosexual couples who "tied the knot" opted for a registered partnership instead of a marriage. 

Amsterdam is the municipality in the Netherlands with the most married same-sex couples. In the Dutch capital, 45 out of 1 thousand married couples are same-sex couples, compared to the the national average of 17 out of 1,000. Married same-sex couples are also relatively common in Nijmegen and Arnhem.

In the Bible Belt, a string of Christian municipalities in the country, married same-sex couples are less common. In Urk, for example, less than 1 per 100,000 married couples are same-sex couples.