Young adults increasingly politically active in the Netherlands
More and more young people in the Netherlands are actively participating in political actions, such as demonstrations or signature campaigns, reports Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) based on the annual report National Youth Monitor 2024.
From 2020 to 2023, an average of 44 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds stated that they had participated in one or more political actions in the past five years. This is more than in the years 2012 to 2019, when the figure was 38 percent. They were particularly likely to take part in unconventional political campaigns such as protest marches and signature campaigns.
The likelihood of over-25-year-olds taking part in political campaigns from 2020 to 2023 was also slightly higher than before. As with young adults, participation in unconventional actions also increased among the over-25s, while participation in conventional actions fell slightly. At 41 percent, young adults took part in unconventional actions much more frequently than people aged 25 and older (32 percent). The difference was greatest for protest marches and demonstrations, in which young adults took part twice as often as those aged 25 and older. However, participation in an action group was equally common for both age groups.
The CBS figures also show that young university graduates in particular participate in political actions in the Netherlands. For example, in the last two years, young adults with a university or university of applied sciences degree weresignificantly more likely to participate in conventional and unconventional actions than their peers with a primary, secondary, or MBO education.
The difference is greatest for unconventional actions: 28 percent of young adults with primary, secondary, or MBO education took part in actions, compared to 52 percent of those with HBO or WO education. Furthermore, young women were more likely to participate in political actions than young men.
