The number of non-education-following women between 15 years and the AOW age without their own income decreased from 481 thousand in 2013 to 321 thousand in 2023. Among men, the percentage without income is much lower at about 2 percent, and fairly stable.
In collaboration with Utrecht University, CBS has researched the characteristics of women without their own income. For this, the 288 thousand women aged 15 to 65 without their own income who do not follow education were studied in 2022 (thus a slightly different group than in the figure above). The results are in the article Women Without Their Own Income, New Insights with a Cluster Analysis.
The women aged 15 to 65 without their own income are on average 50 years old. This is older than the entire group (average 44 years). They are much more often married and less often single. They also have (adult) children more frequently. Furthermore, the group without income has 33 percent more women who were born abroad than average (19 percent). They also live more often in less wealthy households. They also live more often than average in urban areas.
The women without income are classified based on background characteristics into four groups with approximately the same characteristics. The largest group (49 percent) mainly consists of mothers with adult children. These women are on average 58 years old, almost all married, and tend to live more often in less urban areas. This group has relatively high household incomes and is primarily born in the Netherlands.
A second group (23 percent) mainly consists of mothers of school-age children (between 5 and 18 years). They are on average 47 years old and tend to live somewhat more often in urban areas. Most are born outside Europe, and their households have a lower income.
The third group (15 percent) mainly consists of mothers of young children (0 to 5 years). These are the youngest women (average 34 years), almost all living together or married. Half were born outside Europe, and their households have the lowest household income of the four groups.
The fourth group of women (14 percent) more often lives alone or cohabitates unmarried. These women are on average 40 years old, often have no children. The wealth of the households is average.
Another CBS study from 2023 shows that 17 percent of women (15 to 65 years, non-education-following) do not work and are not looking for work either. Among men, that is 8 percent. The main reason for this is illness (9 percent for women, 6 percent for men). For women, the next reason is care for family or household (5 percent), a reason that men hardly mention.
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