Dutch population counter hits 17,171,717

For a short time during the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Netherlands' population counter stood at 17,171,717, Statistics Netherlands announced.

The stats office's population counter is based on information from municipalities, which includes no names. So the 17,171,717th resident can not be traced. The counter is also an estimate, which means that it is not necessarily true that the 17,171,717th resident became a resident of the Netherlands at exactly 00:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The counter already moved on again in the mean time. On average, the Dutch population grows by 200 per day.

Statistics Netherlands spokesperson Dick ter Steege announced the reaching of the magic number on Twitter. "I stayed up for it", he said to broadcaster NOS.