EU immigration to the Netherlands doubled in ten years

The number of people with a nationality from one of the other European Union member states living in the Netherlands doubled in ten years. On 1 January 2024, the Netherlands counted 745,500 residents with another EU nationality. On the same date in 2014, that was around 360,000, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Tuesday, ahead of the European Parliament elections this week.

Nearly 649,000 residents with another EU nationality are 18 years or older and can vote for the European Parliament in the Netherlands if they have declared that they wouldn’t vote in another country. Netherlands residents go to the polls on Thursday, June 6.

The biggest group of EU migrants in the Netherlands are from Poland. Nearly a quarter have Polish nationality. Germans form the second biggest group (11 percent), followed by Bulgarians, Italians, and Romanians. “Compared to ten years ago, more people of all EU nationalities were living in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2024,” CBS said.

Netherlands residents with another EU nationality tend to be younger than Dutch citizens. They are more often between 20 and 50 years old, and the proportion of people over 50 is smaller.

The main reason for EU nationals to come to the Netherlands is work, followed by study and family migration. A large proportion also leave the Netherlands after a while. Of those who lived in the Netherlands in 2011, just over half left within three years, and almost three-quarters left within ten years.

People with another EU nationality who were residents of the Netherlands on 1 January 2024 had lived here for an average of over 7.5 years.