The number of elderly people with a driver’s license is increasing rapidly. At the beginning of this year, almost one million over-75s were allowed to drive, an increase of 5.8 percent compared to last year. Compared to 2018, Statistics Netherlands even sees an increase of just under 40 percent.
The Netherlands had 11.5 million car driving license holders on 1 January, 0.7 percent more than in January 2022. An increasing proportion of driving license holders are over 75s. At the beginning of this year, 995,000 elderly people had a driver’s license, almost 55,000 more than last year.
The number of elderly people with a driving license has been increasing rapidly for years, because we are getting older. Having a driver’s license has also become increasingly common over the years. Five years ago, ‘only’ 719,000 elderly people had a driving licence, now that number is 38 percent higher.
It is also striking that the number of teenagers with a driver’s license is growing once more. The number of people under 20 with a driving license increased by 5.4 percent to 191,000 compared to last year. This number shrank for two years in a row due to the corona pandemic. As a result, driving lessons were canceled and driving tests postponed, resulting in fewer driving licenses being obtained.