More adults in their 30s live with parents, seniors in their 60s increasingly live alone

Fewer people in their 60s in the Netherlands are living with a partner compared with 10 years ago, while more are single or in committed relationships without living together, according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Younger adults are far more likely to be in non-cohabiting relationships. Among 18- to 30-year-olds, 20.8 percent are in such a relationship, 24.7 percent live with a partner, and 54.5 percent are single, often because they still live with their parents.

In 2024, 70.4 percent of people aged 60 to 70 lived with a partner, 24.4 percent were single, and 5.2 percent were in a committed relationship but did not share a home. That share of non-cohabiting couples has increased from 3 percent in 2014. Among people aged 70 to 80, 66.0 percent lived with a partner, 31.0 percent were single, and 3.0 percent were in a non-cohabiting relationship.

CBS expects the number of older adults living without a partner to rise sharply in the coming decades, from 1.4 million in 2024 to 2.1 million in 2070. Some of these people are single, while others have a partner but live separately.

Clear gender differences remain in older age groups. Among 60- to 70-year-olds, 73.4 percent of men live with a partner compared with 67.5 percent of women. Men in this group are also more likely to be in a non-cohabiting relationship, at 6.1 percent versus 4.3 percent for women.

In 70- to 80-year-olds, 75.5 percent of men live with a partner, compared with 57.4 percent of women. A non-cohabiting relationship is reported by 3.7 percent of men and 2.3 percent of women. Ten years earlier, in 2014, 80.9 percent of men aged 70 to 80 lived with a partner, compared with 54.3 percent of women. At that time, women in this age group were also more often single.