Male over 65 is largest car owner

In recent years, the number of passenger cars in the Netherlands has grown strongly. So much so that the number of passenger cars is growing faster than the population aged 18 and older.

From CBS figures show that especially men between the ages of 65 and 75 most often own a car, namely almost 80%. This is remarkable, especially when compared to car ownership among women in the same age category.

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Among women, car ownership is highest among 45- to 55-year-olds, but the 80% is far from being reached. Of women in this age group, almost half, 50%, have one car to her name.

Generally speaking in recent years, car ownership among those 65 and older has increased the most rapidly compared to other age groups. Car ownership among those under 30 has by contrast actually decreased slightly in recent years compared to previous years.

Fewer young people with cars

Among young people up to 25 years of age car ownership among boys and girls is still most similar. Nevertheless, young people are in general underrepresented, though. Even men and women aged 90 or older are more likely to own a car than those under 25.

Possible reasons for not having a car among the young and old are that nnot everyone (anymore) in owns is of a driver's license, they have no money have money for a car or for both young and old people, it can be more difficult to get a car to insurance.

Influence of age on car insurance

Insurers apply a higher premium or maximum age for new car insurance for risk reasons. According to figures from the Center for Insurance Statistics, insurers cannot simply say that seniors are a greater risk. In fact, it turns out that older drivers between the ages of 66 and 75 do not claim more claims on auto insurance than drivers between the ages of 28 and 65. If the setting of stricter conditions for seniors cannot be substantiated, one can say that there is age discrimination. Older people are less interesting to insurers, but that is no reason to charge higher premiums.

The higher the income, the more cars

Car ownership among individuals depends in part on income. Thus, the table below clearly can be seen that the higher the income is, the more cars a person owns.

Individuals who fall into the highest income bracket, namely with a personal income of 200 000 euros or more, therefore have the most cars. This is the age group from 30 to 65 years old.

More senior citizens with cars

Car ownership increased the most in the past five years among people over 80. They had 324 cars per thousand inhabitants at the beginning of 2015; by the beginning of 2020 it will be 375 cars. At 283 cars per thousand population, car ownership among young people under 30 is slightly lower in 2020 than at the beginning of 2015. Although car ownership in this age group was lower in 2020, the number of people in this age group increased. As a result, the proportion of cars owned by this group remained almost the same. In both early 2020 and early 2015, 10 percent of private passenger cars were owned by a 30-miner. Over-80s owned 9 percent of all private passenger cars. Five years earlier, this share was 7 percent. 30- to 65-year-olds own 65 percent of all private passenger cars.