Netherlands got 1 million new entrepreneurs since 2010

The number of business owners in the Netherlands has increased enormously in the last few years. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported that there were almost 2.5 million entrepreneurs in the country in 2023, which is a million more than there were in 2010.

Of all the entrepreneurs, 36 percent are women. This was only the case for 32 percent of the entrepreneurs in 2010. There were around 251,000 first-time entrepreneurs in 2023. The average age of the business owners is around the same as then at around 46 years of age. Since 2010, the share of business owners that are 65 or older has risen from six percent to ten.

In addition, the share of entrepreneurs younger than 30 has also risen from nine percent to 15 percent. The number of young first-time business owners is increasing every year. The industry with the highest share of young first-time business owners was film and TV production and sound recording (68 percent). Many young, first-time business owners have also started a workshop.

The number of entrepreneurs with a non-Dutch background is also increasing. The share of business owners who were born abroad increased from 10 to 16 percent, and the share of second-generation business owners increased from seven to 12 percent. In 2023, one in three foreign-born business owners were from inside the EU. The largest groups came from Poland (35,000), Bulgaria (19,000), and Germany (14,000).

Turkey was the most important country of birth for start-up entrepreneurs outside the EU in 2010 and 2023. These entrepreneurs are mainly active in construction. Many asylum seekers from Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq also started their own companies.