On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands celebrated its first same-sex marriage. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports that - since then - more women than men have married a partner of the same sex. The break-up rate was also higher among female same-sex couples.

On 1 April 2001, marriages between partners of the same sex were legalised in the Netherlands. During the first two years more gay than lesbian couples seized the opportunity to get married, but since 2003 more lesbian than gay marriages were registered. Last year, 765 lesbian and 644 gay marriages were registered in the Netherlands, slightly more than during the past five years.

Annual number of same-sex marriages

Download CSV Show datatable Annual number of same-sex marriages Annual number of same-sex marriages Two men Two women 2001 1339 1075 2002 935 903 2003 735 764 2004 579 631 2005 570 580 2006 579 633 2007 663 708 2008 656 752 2009 573 785 2010 660 694 2011 601 754 2012 544 741 2013 522 700 2014 532 727 2015 647 748

As the number of same-sex marriages increased, so did the number of divorces. Since 2011 more than 200 lesbian couples and more than 100 gay couples decided to break up.

More lesbian than gay couples decide to break up

Lesbian couples are more likely to divorce than gay couples. In 2005 580 lesbian marriages were registered; a decade later more than 30 percent had ended in divorce. Gay marriages are less likely to end in divorce. After ten years more than 15 percent of gay marriages had failed. The break-up rate for heterosexual marriages was 18 percent.

Proportion of marriages registered in 2005 still intact

Download CSV Show datatable Proportion of marriages registered in 2005 still intact Proportion of marriages registered in 2005 still intact Man and woman Two men Two women 2005 100 100 100 2006 99.8 100 99.6 2007 98.6 99 96.6 2008 96.7 98.1 92.4 2009 94.6 96.4 89.1 2010 92.6 93.3 86.2 2011 90.7 91.6 82.1 2012 88.9 89.5 77.7 2013 87.1 87.4 74.6 2014 85.5 86.2 73.2 2015 83.7 86 70.3 2016 82.1 84.5 69.6

People who get married prior to their twentieth birthday or are aged between 40 and 50 at marriage are more likely to divorce. The risk of divorce is also higher if the partners have a wide age gap between them. If the ages of the partners and the age gap between them is taken into account, lesbian couples are still more likely to divorce than gay and heterosexual couples. In that case, the risk of divorce is the same for gay and heterosexual couples.

The analyses only include marriages between partners who were still alive in 2016.

Homosexual men older at marriage

On average, gay partners are older when they marry than their heterosexual counterparts; gay men are on average more than 43 years old on their wedding-day, as against nearly 37 years for heterosexual men. Almost 20 percent of gay married men were 55 years or older on their wedding-day.

Lesbian women are also often older on their wedding-day than heterosexual women. The average age of lesbian partners on their wedding-day is 39, versus 34 for their heterosexual counterparts.

Age on wedding day, 2015

Download CSV Show datatable Age on wedding day, 2015 Age on wedding day, 2015 55 yrs and older 45-54 yrs 35-44 yrs 25-34 yrs younger than 25 yrs Man in same-sex marriage 19.2 25 26.9 24.8 4 Woman in same-sex marriage 12.2 19.2 25.1 37.6 5.9 Man in heterosexual marriage 11.1 12.8 22.6 46.6 7 Woman in heterosexual marriage 7.7 10.2 18.1 48.6 15.4

Considerable age gap between gay partners

Apart from the average age of gay men at marriage, the age gap between them is also higher than between lesbian and heterosexual partners. The age difference between gay partners was 7.5 years in 2015. In more than one-quarter of gay marriages, the age difference was more than ten years. The average age gap between lesbian partners was 4.6 years, versus 4.3 years between heterosexual partners.