Number of youth care recipients stable last year
In 2022, 467 thousand young people in the Netherlands received some form of youth care. This is approximately the same number as in the previous year. It means that 10.5 percent of all young people in the Netherlands under the age of 23 are youth care recipients. The most prevalent form of youth care is youth assistance. Recipients of youth assistance particularly include boys aged 8 to 11 years and girls aged 12 to 17 years. This is evident from new provisional figures, released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
The majority of young people receiving youth care, almost 457 thousand, received youth assistance in 2022. This is approximately the same number as in 2021. This type of youth care is basically intended for young people under 18 but can be extended up to the age of 23. Nearly 39 thousand young people up to age 18 were receiving youth protection. That is a decrease of 6 percent compared to 2021.
Over 7 thousand young people aged 12 to 22 years were in juvenile rehabilitation. That was 6.7 percent less than in 2021.
Municipalities differ widely in number of youth care recipients
In the municipalities of Tiel and Terneuzen, over 17 percent of all young people under 23 were youth care recipients. This was less than 5 percent in Vlieland and Urk. There may be several reasons for such differences. Socio-economic differences between regions in areas such as income, single-parent families and care use may play a role. In addition, municipalities may make their own choices in how they shape youth care. The amount and type of youth care that is available may therefore vary among the municipalities.
Youth assistance used more by boys in upper primary and adolescent girls
In 2022, there were over 4.4 million young people under 23 years in the Netherlands. A share of 10.5 percent were receiving youth assistance. The different age categories in this group showed substantial differences. Among children under 4, youth assistance was provided to 4.4 percent; among young adults (18 to 22 years) the share was 1.4 percent. Among primary pupils the boys were more often recipients than the girls. In the age category 8 to 11 years, 22.3 percent of the boys were receiving youth assistance.
Girls were more often given youth assistance in the age category 12 to 17 years. The share receiving youth assistance was 17.9 percent in 2022, against 14.8 percent of the boys. There has been an increase in the share of girls aged 12 to 17 years receiving youth assistance in recent years. It was still 14.2 percent in 2019.
Note on youth protection
At the time provisional figures over 2022 were published, outcomes on the termination of youth protection measures in 2020 and 2021 were revised. The datasets supplied to CBS earlier on the years 2020 and 2021 (and first half of 2022) were found to contain errors in the variable ‘reason for termination of the youth protection trajectory’. This error was fixed in early 2023 and improved datasets were delivered for these reporting periods.
The revised figures can be found here:
StatLine - Youth protection trajectories (Dutch only)