Half a million Dutch live abroad in Europe

Many Dutch people are making full use of the free movement of persons in Europe. In early 2011 almost half a million Dutch people were living in other European countries. This is according to figures Statistics Netherlands released today, based on an European census carried out in 32 countries. The census showed that about 470 thousand people born in the Netherlands were living in one of the other 31 participating countries on January 1st, 2011. Most of them lived in neighboring countries Belgium - 126 thousand - and Germany - 112 thousand. The 470 thousand Dutch people living in other countries are almost equally divided between gender - 50 percent men and 50 percent women. Though the distribution varies by country. Between 20 and 25 percent of Dutch people living in Estonia and Latvia are women. In Greece and Italy, almost 65 percent of the Dutch are women. In Germany and Belgium there are almost equal numbers of Dutch men and women - 49 and 50 percent respectively. About a quarter of the Dutch men living in other European countries are under 30 years old. A third is between 30 and 50 years old and about 40 percent are older than 50. In women this is virtually the same, with a slightly larger share of above 50 and a slightly lower share of between 30 and 50 years old. As with the gender distribution, the age distribution also varies by countries. Almost half of the Dutch-born people living in the UK are under 30 years old. This is mostly due to relatively many Dutch students living there. Denmark and Norway count a relatively large portion of between 30 and 50 year olds.