8.1 million adults are registered for organ donation

© Hollandse Hoogte / Harold Versteeg
On 1 January 2025, 8.1 million people aged 18 years or older were registered as organ donor in the national Donor Register. That is an increase of nearly 30 thousand compared to the previous year. A larger proportion of adults have not registered their preference in the Donor Register, and are therefore automatically registered as organ donors. This is particularly true for 18 to 24-year-olds. This is according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Donor register.

In total, 58 percent of young adults were registered as organ donors: 34 percent gave their active consent to organ donation and 24 percent were registered as having ‘no objection’ to organ donation, because they had not registered their preference. Nearly 11 percent had named a family member or another person to decide on this on their behalf, and 31 percent actively withheld their consent.

Young people are less likely to register their choice

Among young people aged under 25, 41 percent have not made a choice. They are therefore most likely to be registered as ‘having no objection’ to organ donation. In 2022, this was 36 percent.

Increase in 'no consent' among young people who have made a choice

Among the 18 to 24-year-olds who had registered their choice in the Donor register, more than 45 percent did not consent to organ donation. In 2022, this was 41 percent. Among 25 to 74-year-olds, 38 percent did not consent to organ donation. Only those aged 75 or older were more likely than the other age groups to actively withhold their consent (52 percent versus 56 percent in 2022).


Neder-Betuwe and Urk have the lowest number of donor registrations

Residents of Neder-Betuwe were the least likely to be registered as organ donors at 43 percent, followed by residents of Urk (47 percent). Residents of the municipality of Groningen were the most likely to be registered as organ donors (68 percent), followed by Rozendaal (67 percent).

Residents of Urk were the least likely of any municipality to make a choice and are therefore registered as having ‘no objection to organ donation’ (32 percent). The number of people who gave their active consent (15 percent) was also lowest on Urk. The choice to allow a close relative or friend to decide on this on their behalf was twice as high as the national average, at 22 percent.

Men are more likely than women not to make a choice

Men were almost one and a half times more likely than women not to have registered their preference. People who completed primary education or prevocational secondary education (VMBO) were one and a half times more likely not to make a choice than those who completed higher vocational education (HBO) or university education (WO). When they did register their preference, they were almost twice as likely to choose ‘no consent’. This corresponds to the differences between people who were not born in the Netherlands and those who were.

61 thousand people changed their preference last year

Anyone who is included in the Donor Register can amend their choice at any time. A total of 61 thousand people did so in 2024. The majority switched from ‘no objection’ to their own preference. 15 thousand people amended their choice from ‘no objection’ to ‘no consent’, and 11 thousand from ‘no objection’ to ‘consent’ or to ‘someone else can decide’. People who previously had not given their consent also amended their choice: 5 thousand people who had chosen for ‘no consent’ in 2024, gave their consent for organ donation this year, or chose to have someone else decide on this on their behalf.

Sources

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