The number of senior citizens who hold a driver’s license is rapidly increasing. At the beginning of this year, nearly one million people over seventy-five were allowed to drive, an increase of 5.8 percent compared to last year. Compared to 2018, Statistics Netherlands sees an increase of just under 40 percent.
The Netherlands had 11.5 million car driver’s license holders on January 1, up 0.7 percent from January 2022. The percentage of driver’s license holders is more than 75. At the beginning of this year, 995,000 elderly people obtained a driver’s license, an increase of 55,000 over last year.
The number of seniors with a driver’s license has been increasing rapidly for years, as we are getting older. Getting a driver’s license has become increasingly common over the years. Five years ago, only 719,000 elderly people had a driver’s license, now that number is 38% higher.
It is also remarkable that the number of teenagers with a driver’s license is increasing again. The number of people under the age of 20 with a driver’s license increased by 5.4 percent to 191,000 compared to last year. This number shrank for two consecutive years due to the Corona pandemic. As a result, driving lessons have been canceled and driving tests postponed, resulting in fewer driver’s licences.