More automatic organ donors as Dutch do not actively register their choice

On the first day of this year, 8.1 million adults in the Netherlands were registered as organ and tissue donors, almost 30,000 more than at the start of 2024. A large proportion of the increase is due to people not actively registering their choice at the Donor Register, and therefore automatically being registered as a donor. That is particularly true for young adults, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported.

58 percent of adults in the Netherlands are registered as organ donors. 34 percent have actively given consent for organ donors, and 24 percent are registered as “no objection” because they have not submitted a choice. Almost 11 percent are leaving the decision up to their family, and 31 percent have indicated that they do not want to donate their organs after death.

Among young adults aged 18 to 25, 41 percent have not actively registered a choice with the Donor Register. This age group is most often registered as “no objection to organ donation.” Of the young adults who have made an active choice, 45 percent said they didn’t want to be donors, up from 41 percent in 2022.

Senior citizens over the age of 75 percent are least likely to consent to organ donation, with 52 percent listed as non-donors. In 2022, this was still 56 percent.