Dutch Teens With Divorced Parents Near One Quarter as Surnames Diverge

A couples therapist identifies emotional disconnection, feeling unable to satisfy a partner, irreconcilable disagreements, and repeated betrayals among the recurring reasons marriages end, noting that divorce often follows a long accumulation of unresolved problems rather than one event. Separate research from the Institute for Family Studies found that couples with different last names divorce at a rate about 50% higher and separate sooner than couples who share a surname, though the report cautions that naming practices may reflect other factors, such as hasty marriages or differing attitudes toward marriage, rather than cause divorce. The analysis also suggests that the administrative burden of changing a name may discourage some couples with shared surnames from divorcing. In the Netherlands, official statistics show that nearly one-quarter of 15-year-olds had separated or divorced parents in 2025, while the proportion living with married legal parents has declined substantially over the past three decades.