Record proportion of Dutch voters are over 65; Most don't know who to vote for yet

The Dutch population is aging, and so are its voters. This year, a record 28 percent of eligible voters are over the age of 65, compared to 18 percent 30 years ago, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. With the parliamentary election coming up next week, the majority of voters still don’t know which party they’ll vote for, according to RTL Nieuws after polling its news panel.

The average age of Dutch voters is now 51.1 years old, compared to 49.5 years old a decade ago, and 45.3 years old 30 years ago. The voting-age population is relatively old in the Noord-Holland municipalities of Bergen (41.9 percent older than 65) and Laren (41.6 percent, and in the Limburg municipality of Vaals (41.1 percent).

An estimated 13.4 million Netherlands residents are eligible to vote in the parliamentary election on October 29. Around 360,000 of them are 18-year-olds voting for the first time.

Nearly 91 percent of the adult population is eligible to vote. “This share is smaller than in previous elections,” CBS said. In 2017, for example, 94 percent of adult Netherlands residents were eligible to vote in the parliamentary election. “This is due to increased immigration; not all immigrants have Dutch nationality (yet).”

When RTL Nieuws polled 117,000 members of its news panel last week, two weeks before the parliamentary election, 64 percent said that they didn’t know who they’d vote for on October 29. That’s up from 59 percent two weeks before the previous parliamentary election in November 2022.

Various factors play a role in this, including that trust in politics is very low at the moment. Earlier this week, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) warned undecided voters not to use AI chatbots to help them choose a party. The chatbots are biased and unreliable, the Dutch privacy watchdog warned. They recommend the PVV and GroenLinks-PvdA too often and hardly ever mention some other parties, even if the voter’s input aligns perfectly with their election programs.