Fortuyn was born on 19 February 1948 in Driehuis, as the third child to a Catholic family. His father worked as a salesman and his mother was a housewife. In 1967 he began to study sociology at the University of Amsterdam but transferred after a few months to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 1971 he ended his study with the Academic degree Doctorandus. In 1981 he received a doctorate in sociology at the University of Groningen as a Doctor of Philosophy.