The number of people who are members of a national political party grew more than 15 percent last year. The largest growth was achieved by Forum for Democracy, which is far ahead with almost 59,000 members, according to the Documentation Center for Dutch Political Parties (DNPP) in its annual overview. Last year, the institute of the University of Groningen questioned the number specified by the FvD, but now has an accountant’s statement.
The number of members of political parties in the House of Representatives and the Senate has declined for a long time. But in recent years it has risen again. In 2020 there were almost 317,000 people who paid contributions, last year there were more than 321,000 and now the counter stands at about 371,000.
On the one hand, this is because four new parties were added after the parliamentary elections on March 17, 2021: BBB, Bij1, JA21 and Volt. Together they account for more than 25,500 members, about 7 percent of the total.
On the other hand, other parties in the House of Representatives also saw their paying supporters grow considerably: Forum for Democracy by about 30 percent, the Party for the Animals by almost a quarter, D66 by 17 percent and Denk by more than 10 percent.
PvdA second, CDA third
The CDA lost almost 7 percent of its members last year, but remained the third party with 35,000, after the FvD and the PvdA.
The total number of people who are members of a political party is now about the same as it was in 1987, but then they were divided between ten and now sixteen parties. The PVV does not count in the overview, because it is not possible to become a member of that party.
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