Dutch population still growing solely through migration

The Dutch population grew by almost 21,000 people to 18.07 million inhabitants in the first quarter of 2025, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Thursday. The population growth is almost the same as in Q1 of 2024 and is still entirely due to migration.

Immigration and emigration resulted in a net population increase of 31,000 people. More people died in the first quarter than babies were born, resulting in the population decreasing by almost 10,000 people.

Immigration was higher in the first quarter than a year earlier. In the first three months of 2025, 79,000 immigrants moved to the Netherlands, compared to around 75,000 a year earlier. Emigration remained approximately the same at almost 49,000, resulting in a migration balance of 30,600. In the first quarter of 2024, the migration balance was 27,100.

The largest group of immigrants in the first quarter was Syrians, most of whom came to the Netherlands as asylum seekers. As soon as an asylum seeker gets refugee status and a residency permit or has lived in an asylum shelter for six months, they register with a municipality and count as an immigrant and resident. There were also more immigrants from other countries where asylum is often the reason for moving, including Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.

There were again fewer immigrants from other European Union countries. In the first quarter of 2025, this was a net of 3,000 people, compared to almost 6,000 in Q1 of 2024 and 9,000 in Q1 of 2023. People with the Netherlands as their country of origin - people who were born here themselves as well as one or both of their parents, emigrated more often than they moved back to the Netherlands. In the first quarter, 7,000 Dutch left the Netherlands while 4,000 moved back.

In the first three months of 2025, almost 2,000 more people died and 1,000 fewer children were born than a year earlier. “Mortality has been increasing in recent years because there are more and more elderly people in the population,” CBS said. “Because the number of births remains low, the difference with the number of deaths is increasing.”

In the first quarter of 2025, almost 10,000 more people died than children were born. The natural population growth has been negative for some time. In Q1 of 2024, it was -7,000.