Immigration still the only driving force behind Dutch population growth

The Dutch population growth of the past six months was “entirely due to foreign migration,” Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Immigration did fall by more than 11,000 to 138,000, while emigration actually increased by almost 1,000 to 92,000 people. But on balance, more people came to the Netherlands than left. The natural growth was negative - more people died than babies were born.

The number of Netherlands residents grew by 39,000 to 17.98 million in the first half of 2024, according to preliminary figures. The increase is less sharp than in the same period last year when the population grew by over 52,000 people.

Most immigrants came from European countries, but the number of Europeans leaving the Netherlands was also the largest. Syria was the non-EU country from which most people came, with over 11,000 people. Another 6,600 people came to the Netherlands from Ukraine and 4,500 people from Turkey, followed by Romania (2,000 people) and South Africa (1,600).

CBS also reported that almost 1,000 more children were born in the first half of 2024 than in the same period of 2023. Over 81,000 babies were born in the first six months of this year. But the number of deaths was higher at over 88,000.