Large families on decline in Netherlands 15/05/2008 00:00

Numbers of large families in The Netherlands have been halved in the last 10 years.

15 May 2008

THE NETHERLANDS - The number of large families in The Netherlands has declined sharply in the last 10 years.

In 1998, there were almost 2,300 families with eight or more children living at home, but in the intervening years, this number has almost halved.

The number of families with four or more children at home is also shrinking: Statistics Netherlands has registered a decrease of 8 percent.

The researchers have determined that this phenomenon is occurring mainly in immigrant Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Antillean families.

But large families are still to be found in The Netherlands, primarily among native Dutch households in the so-called 'bible belt', the area between Zeeland in the south and Overijssel in the northeast that is home to many traditional Protestants.

[Radio Netherlands / Expatica]