Acceptance of homosexuality among Dutch secondary-school pupils has fallen sharply in four years, according to the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey published on September 21 by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute.
Among boys aged 12 to 16, the share with a positive view dropped from 40 per cent in 2021 to 22 per cent in 2025. Among girls it fell from 78 per cent to 51 per cent.
The study, of about 6,600 pupils, is run every four years. It has been carried out since 2001 and is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
Lead researcher Gonneke Stevens, professor of youth wellbeing at Utrecht, called the fall the largest change in the latest wave.
“We expected a decline, but not that it would be this strong. Tolerance is back around the level of 2009,” she said, referring to the year when the questions were first asked.
The researchers noted, though, that a change in sampling method meant the figures could not be compared directly with those of 2009.
Fewer pupils now think a gay or lesbian classmate can be open at school: 45 per cent, down from 60 per cent.
More describe two boys or two girls kissing as “disgusting”. Acceptance is lower on vocational tracks than on academic ones.
NL Times reported that pupils with a migration background were about nine percentage points more negative than those born in the Netherlands.
Stevens told newspaper de Volkskrant the drop appeared in every group, boys and girls, rich and poor, whatever their level of education, and “does not have to do with migration”, although acceptance among pupils with a migration background was already lower.
One quarter of Dutch youths have a migration background and, according to the report, acceptance of homosexuality among them is significantly lower.
The sharp decline in acceptance of homosexuality is part of a broader societal trend in which sexual diversity and gender diversity have become more prominent topics of public debate, the study said.
Stevens pointed to a harsher public argument: Politicians and influencers speaking more negatively, a return of traditional male-female roles, criticism of Purple Friday, an annual day of solidarity with LGBT pupils in Dutch schools, rainbow flag waving and of sex education and the “manosphere”.
The researchers stressed more research was needed to establish a causal link. Stevens said, though, that young people had been more exposed to such views in the same period in which their attitudes had turned more negative, public broadcaster NOS reported.
A study by the Amsterdam municipal health service (GGD) published in 2024 found that fewer than half of local teenagers still called homosexuality “normal”: 43 per cent, down from 63 per cent in the previous survey.
A University of Amsterdam study later commissioned by the government found only seven of the country’s 25 GGD regions had asked the question, too few to establish a national trend.
The HBSC report also finds school less popular than a decade ago, worse classmate atmosphere and more bullying. Academic pressure remains high.
The share of secondary-school girls with emotional problems rose from 29 per cent in 2017 to 43 per cent in 2025, it said.
Marie Ricardo, director of Dutch LGBT rights organisation COC, called the homosexuality figures a “frightening development” and said the country needed the next generation “for a free country in which everyone can be themselves”.
Ricardo also urged social media platforms to take responsibility, accusing them of giving free rein to the manosphere and influencers such as Andrew Tate.
For years Dutch teenage tolerance had been rising. The 2021-2025 wave is the first clear break.
