Just 5% of Dutch population lived through 1945 liberation, statistics show

Just over 5 percent of the current Dutch population personally experienced the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II, according to new figures released by the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS).

As the country marks 80 years since the liberation from Nazi Germany in May 1945, CBS reports that 932,000 people in the Netherlands were already alive at that time. However, not all of them may remember the events firsthand. Of those 932,000 individuals, about 423,000 were between the ages of five and twenty in 1945, making it more likely they retained memories of the end of the occupation.

An estimated 2,600 people alive today were twenty or older at the time, meaning they likely experienced the liberation as fully aware adults. These individuals represent the group most likely to have vivid recollections of the historic turning point.

The number of people with direct experience of liberation has dropped sharply in the past decade. Ten years ago, CBS estimates showed that approximately 12 percent of the Dutch population—nearly 2 million people—had lived through the liberation. That figure has now declined by more than half.

CBS projects the number will continue to fall rapidly. In another ten years, only about 200,000 residents are expected to remain who were alive when the Netherlands was freed from German occupation.