A quarter of 15-year-olds have divorced parents; no change over the past ten years

At the beginning of 2025, approximately 3.3 million children lived in the Netherlands. Of these children, 3.1 million had two known legal parents. Among 15-year-olds, 30 percent did not have both parents living at home as their caregivers.

This was usually because their parents had separated. In 1995, this was still 20 percent. That figure increased between 1995 and 2015, but remained roughly the same after 2015.

Almost all children who do not live with both parents have divorced parents. Among all 15-year-olds, the parents of 24 percent have separated. This increased from 13 percent in 1995 to 23 percent in 2016.

This percentage has remained roughly unchanged since 2016. Most children with divorced parents live with their mother. In 2025, 82 percent of these children lived with their mother and 16 percent with their father.

Sometimes children live with neither parent, but with other caregivers or in an institution, for example. Under a joint-custody arrangement, children can sometimes live with both parents, but they are always registered at one address. Approximately a quarter of 15-year-olds with divorced parents live with a stepparent.

Usually, they live with their mother and her new partner (21 percent), and sometimes with their father and his new partner (3 percent). This is lower than in 2010. This is because divorced parents are less likely to move in with a new partner again.

Of the parents who separated in 1995, nearly 30 percent were living with a new partner five years later. In 2020, this was only 19 percent. After a divorce, new families often form in which children gain stepbrothers and stepsisters or half-brothers and half-sisters.

In 2025, 31 percent of 15-year-olds with stepparents lived in such a blended family. This is slightly lower than in 2010. Thus, parents are less likely to move in together again after a divorce.