Between 2013 and 2020, about 1.9 percent of minor children experienced a divorce of their parents annually. After 2020 (post-pandemic), this dropped to 1.5 percent, but in 2023 it increased again to 1.7 percent.
The data does not count registered divorces but parents who no longer live at the same address one year later. An increasing share of divorced parents lived together unmarried before the separation. Of all children whose parents separated in 2023, just over half (56 percent) had married parents. In 2003, this was still 73 percent.
Children aged 2 to 7 most often experience divorce
Children between 2 and 7 years old most often experience a divorce proportionally. In 2023, about 2 percent of children in this age group were affected. For older children, this percentage is lower. For example, less than 1.3 percent of 16- and 17-year-olds experienced their parents divorce. This pattern has changed little over the years.
Children with unmarried cohabiting parents experience their parents separating more often than children with married parents: 3.0 percent versus 1.2 percent.
Almost a quarter of children do not live with both parents
On January 1, 2025, 23 percent of all minor children lived not with both legal parents. This share increases from 12 percent of 0- and 1-year-olds to 34 percent of 17-year-olds. The oldest children sometimes already live independently (over 2 percent of 17-year-olds).
Of the nearly 710 thousand minor children living at home who do not live with both parents, the majority live only with their legal mother (72 percent). Nineteen percent live in a blended family where the father or mother lives with a new partner. This has changed little in the past ten years.
Because a person can only be registered at one address, situations such as joint custody, where children alternate living with both parents, are not reflected in these figures. Besides parental separation, the death of one or both parents is sometimes the reason children do not live with both parents (4 percent of these children). Additionally, the register does not always know who the other parent is (almost a quarter of children not living with both parents).
Children in Heerlen most often live with only mother or father
In Heerlen, the share of minor children living at home who are not registered with both parents is the highest. There, 39 percent live with the mother or father, with or without a new partner. Rotterdam and Kerkrade follow (both 35 percent). In Urk (6 percent) and Staphorst (8 percent), children are least often registered with one of the parents; they most often live with both legal parents.