Data on finding a partner based on the Family Formation Survey

Data are based upon the most recent Family Formation Survey conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). The survey is held every five years and was conducted in the period April-October 2013. More than 10 thousand people in the age category 18-79 participated in the survey. The survey is compared to the surveys conducted in 2003 and 2008.

Figures in this article refer to people who started living together with their current partner in the five years prior to the survey. The survey only deals with opposite-sex couples. Same-sex couples have not been taken into account, because the number of homosexual and lesbian couples in the survey was too low to draw reliable conclusions.

Living together is defined as people living in the same house with their partner, irrespective of whether they are married or not.