The number of young people in the Netherlands that had to deal with youth care last year remained almost the same as the year before. In 2022, this will concern almost 467,000 young people, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands.
That is more than 10 percent of all young people up to the age of 23. In 2021, slightly more young people made use of youth care: over 469,000.
In the vast majority of cases it concerned youth assistance. This concerns parenting problems, psychological help requests or help for young people with an intellectual disability. In 2022, 457,000 young people made use of this.
Almost 39,000 young people, slightly less than in 2021, received youth protection. This is a measure that the court can impose if the healthy and safe development of a child or young person is threatened and voluntary help does not help.
More than 7000 young people had to deal with youth probation, guidance for young people who have had an official report.
Tiel and Terneuzen
The figures vary widely from municipality to municipality. In Tiel and Terneuzen, for example, more than 17 percent of all young people up to the age of 23 received youth care last year. On Vlieland and Urk that was less than 5 percent.
According to Statistics Netherlands, there are probably several reasons for the divergent figures. This concerns, for example, differences in income and care needs per region. Each municipality also has its own interpretation of how youth care is provided.
Boys and girls
The figures also show that there are also large differences between the age groups. More than 22 percent of the young people who received youth care were between the ages of 8 and 12. For children up to the age of 4 this was 4.4 percent, the age group of 18 to 23 years formed the smallest share in the total number of users of youth care.
Among children of primary school age, boys more often received youth care than girls. In the group aged 12 to 18, girls received help more often. The percentage of girls in this age group receiving youth care has risen in recent years.
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