Women in the Netherlands are having fewer children and starting later in life, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. The total fertility rate decreased from 1.71 children per woman in 2014 to 1.43 children per woman in 2024. In 2024, women were on average 30.4 years old at the birth of their first child.

According to CBS, the fertility rate declined in almost all municipalities. In 2014, women in 65 percent of municipalities had an average of more than 1.75 children. In 2024, this was the case for only 19 percent of municipalities.

“The decline likely began before 2014, given that the national birth rate has been falling since 2010,” CBS said. “The birth rate fell more sharply in highly urban areas than in other areas.”

The total fertility rate was already lower in 2014 in the major cities, the coastal areas of Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland, Limburg, and the border region of Noord-Brabant. Between 2014 and 2024, the decrease was strongest in Friesland, Flevoland, and Zuid-Holland, where the fertility rate fell by 19 percent. Zeeland saw the smallest decline at 11 percent.

Almost half (46 percent) of all children born in 2024 were the mother’s first child. 37 percent were second children, and 17 percent were third or subsequent children. Staphorst had the highest percentage of third or subsequent children born, at 41 percent.

Larger families are mainly found in the Bible Belt, a strip of municipalities from Zeeland to Drenthe and Friesland that has a high percentage of conservative Protestants in their popopultions. In municipalities in Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, and Utrecht, there are far fewer families with more than two children.