25 years since first same-sex marriages in the Netherlands

• 36,000 same-sex couples have married since 2001.
• Amsterdam, Nijmegen and Groningen are home to the highest numbers of married same-sex couples.
• Marriages between women are more likely to end in divorce.

1 April marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first same-sex marriage in the Netherlands. Since then, over 36,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot, just over half of whom were female couples. This is according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

At the start of 2026, the Netherlands had 25,000 married same-sex couples, of whom nearly 13,000 were female couples and 12,000 were male couples. Of these, 600 male couples and 500 female couples got married in 2001, which means that some of them will be celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this year.

More marriages now than before coronavirus pandemic

More female couples get married than male couples. Only in the first two years following the introduction of same-sex marriage was the number of male couples higher. Over the past five years, 900 female couples have got married and 750 male couples each year, on average. That is an increase from the 2016-2020 period, when around 750 female couples and 600 male couples got married each year.

There was a dip in the number of same-sex marriages in 2020, with weddings postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic and the associated restrictions. The number of marriages then recovered and is now higher than before the pandemic. The same pattern was seen in the number of marriages between men and women.

Male couples older than female couples when they get married

Male couples are usually older than female couples when they get married. In 2025, the average age for male couples getting married was 41 years old, compared with 37 years for female couples and for male-female couples.

There is also a bigger age difference between partners in male couples: 7 years on average. The average age difference for female couples is 5 years, and for male-female couples it is 4 years.

Amsterdam has the most same-sex couples

Of all the people in the Netherlands who have got married since 2001, 17 in every thousand are in same-sex relationships. Same-sex married couples are more likely than average to live in urban areas. Amsterdam has the highest number of married same-sex couples, at 44 per thousand partnerships, followed by Nijmegen (35 per thousand) and Groningen (29 per thousand). A relatively high number of same-sex couples also live in some of the neighbouring municipalities. There are fewer married same-sex couples living in less urbanised municipalities, particularly in the Dutch bible belt. In Urk and Woudenberg, for instance, the figure is less than 1 per thousand married couples.

Same-sex marriages are more likely to end in divorce

Every year, over 400 same-sex marriages end in divorce. Marriages between two women often last for a shorter period than marriages between two men or between a man and a woman. Of the women who married another woman in 2015, 24 percent had divorced by 1 January 2025. That is almost twice the rate among male couples (13 percent) and male-female couples (also 13 percent). The same applies to marriages in earlier or later years, and also to civil partnerships: female couples are the most likely to get divorced or separated.