Covid caused temporary dip in NL population growth

The Dutch population will continue to grow in the next 50 years, despite a dip this year caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday. The population will likely hit 20 million residents in 2063, according to the stats office's population forecast for 2020 to 2070.

This year, the Dutch population growth is expected to amount to 63 thousand more people living in the Netherlands than the start of the year. That is about half the growth of last year, when 126 thousand inhabitants were added. The lower growth is completely due to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in higher mortality and lower migration, the stats office said.

Statistics Netherlands expects migration to pick up again in the coming years, both immigration and emigration. With Covid-19 vaccines becoming available, travel restrictions currently limiting migration will decrease next year. Though higher unemployment will still limit the rise of labor migration in 2021.

The number of Covid-19 related deaths is also expected to decrease next year, due to vaccines and better treatment methods. The delayed care of non-Covid patients may result in higher non-corona deaths. But as many relatively vulnerable people died of the coronavirus this year who otherwise may have died in the short term of another disease, the stats office does not expect this to have a significant effect on the mortality rate.

After recovering in 2021, the Netherlands population growth is expected to exceed 100 thousand again in 2022. Statistics Netherlands expects the population to reach 18 million in 2026 and 19 million in 2038. In the coming decades, population growth will mainly be due to more people immigrating to the Netherlands than moving away, and because of the increasing lifespan.