After a fairly stable period, the number of deceased in the Netherlands in 2024 increased again. 172,000 people died last year: an increase of 1.5 percent compared to 2023. The death was mainly higher among eighty and women. This is apparent from the provisional death rates of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which were published on Tuesday.
Because the Dutch population is growing and aging, the number of deceased is increasing annually. The death rates made a jump in 2020, at the start of the Coronapandemie. In the following years, mortality remained at this higher level.
The Dutch are dying at an increasing age. Most of the deceased, 57 percent of the total, are eighty or older. 2,300 more eighty people died in 2024 than in the previous year. The number of eighties will increase sharply in the coming years. In 2025, baby boomers who were born in 1945 will be eighty years old.
More women than men died last year. There are more older women who also die at a higher age than men. During the pandemic, the number of deceased men increased stronger than the number of deceased women. The expectation is that the difference between men and women will become smaller in the coming years, because men also live longer and longer.
Growth
The average life expectancy at birth is 81.9 years. For women, life expectancy compared to last year has decreased by a month to 83.3 years. The life expectancy for women is still almost three years longer than that for men. For men, life expectancy rose by three months to 80.5 years.
Life expectancy fell at the start of the Coronapandemie. For men, life expectancy in 2024 is again higher than before the pandemic.
Life expectancy indicates how old people become on average based on the risk of death per age. This is calculated on the basis of the observed number of deceased people. Since the 1980s, the difference in life expectancy between men and women is decreasing.
The number of deceased is larger in 2024 than the number of living children. The Dutch population is still growing due to immigration and no longer due to natural growth.
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