Number of Dutch adults who rarely follow news doubles in three years

The number of Dutch adults who rarely or never follow the news has doubled in the last three years. Research by Newcom, based on a survey of over 8,000 people, shows that last year about 2.1 million people fell into this category.

Most people who show little interest in the news are younger, including Gen Z and millennials, with some not yet of voting age. A large share of Dutch youth regularly use social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to encounter and follow news, with Instagram and TikTok particularly strong among younger age groups, while roughly 500,000 actively avoid it altogether.

The 2025 National Media Confidence Monitor further shows that nearly half of Dutch adults aged 18 and older consume news daily, through TV, print, or online sources. However, one-third give news media a trust score of 6 or less, with the lowest levels of trust found among users who only follow alternative outlets like blckbx or De Andere Krant, or who rely on social media.

“Trust is tangible: audiences reward news outlets that are perceived as fair and reliable, with minimal questions about accuracy,” says Neil van der Veer of Newcom. “Meanwhile, an increasing number of people are tuning out traditional media and relying mostly on social media. This makes transparency about sources, reporting methods, and corrections more crucial than ever.”

Globally and in the Netherlands, interest in news is falling. An international survey found that 39 percent of people across different countries avoid news because they find it “exhausting,” up roughly 10 points since 2017. In the Netherlands, many respondents similarly reported that they find the news “tiring.”