Ever more people are single or live alone

At the start of 2025, 5.7 million adults in the Netherlands were single. The majority of these people (4.4 million) were living alone, and 627 thousand were single parents. Some of them lived with their parents. This is according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Not everybody who lives alone is single. In 2025, 60 percent of people were living with a partner, and 30 percent stated that they had no long-term partner. The remaining 10 percent were in a long-term relationship but not living with their partner - a situation sometimes referred to as ‘living apart together’.

The share of people who are single has risen slightly in recent years: in 2013, 27 percent were not in a long-term relationship. The number of people who are ‘living apart together’ has also risen slightly, up from 8 percent in 2013.

Most single people are under 25 or over 75

Young people under the age of 25 are less likely to be living with a partner (8 percent) and more likely to be single (62 percent) or to have a partner whom they do not live with (29 percent). In the 25-34 age group, the share of people living with a partner rises sharply. Slightly more than half live with a partner in this age group, while 13 percent have a partner but do not live with them.

Between the ages of 35 and 75, the share of people living with a partner rises to 70 percent. Among those aged 75 and over, around 42 percent live alone and have no long-term partner. This group is mainly made up of people whose partner has passed away. Around 3 percent of people aged 75 and over have a long-term partner but do not live with them. Just over half of people in this age group live with their partner.

Younger men and older women most likely to be single

Women are slightly more likely to be single (32 percent) than men (28 percent). Men and women are equally likely to be 'living apart together'. Men under the age of 25 are more likely to say they have no long-term partner (69 percent) than young women (55 percent), and there are more single men than single women in the 25-34 age group, too. Two factors are relevant here: up to the age of around 40, men outnumber women slightly. Secondly, men tend to be slightly older than women in heterosexual relationships.

From the age of 65 upwards, and certainly among those aged 75 and older, there are clearly more single women than single men: women live longer than men on average, and from the age of 65 and upwards women outnumber men.

Among those aged 35-44, the share of single men and single women is the same, but from the age of 45 upwards, the share of single women is higher than that of single men. The main factor behind this is probably that the effects of divorce become apparent in this age group: men are more likely to find a new partner after a divorce than women are.

68 percent of divorced women are single, compared to 55 percent of divorced men. After a divorce, people are also more likely to have a long-term partner with whom they do not cohabit: 21 percent of divorced men and 14 percent of divorced women. Among those whose partner has died, 90 percent are single and 6 percent have a long-term partner whom they do not live with.

Single women are more likely to be happy than single men

On average, single people are less happy than people with a long-term partner whom they do not live with. People who live with a partner are happier than both single people and those with a long-term partner whom they do not live with. Single women are slightly more likely to be happy (82 percent) than single men (76 percent).

The vast majority of people who have a partner are satisfied with their partner. Around 93 percent say they are satisfied with their partner, and there is no difference between those who live together and those who live apart.