Sharp dip in Dutch population growth due to less immigration; Asylum requests picking up

The population of the Netherlands grew by nearly 10,000 people in the first quarter of 2026, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. A year earlier, the population growth was over twice as high. The lower growth is due to fewer people immigrating to the Netherlands. The number of asylum applications did increase by 33% to nearly 6,000 in the first quarter, but CBS only counts asylum seekers as part of the Dutch population once they get refugee status and register with a municipality.

The population growth in Q1 is the lowest since 2015, when the population increased by over 9,000 people in the first quarter. Between 2016 and 2025, the number of Dutch residents increased by an average of 22,000 in the first quarter. 2022 was an outlier with 51,000 new residents, mainly due to the immigration of Ukrainian refugees.

The lower population growth is entirely due to fewer people moving to the Netherlands than a year earlier. In Q1 this year, 66,000 immigrants came to the Netherlands, compared to 79,000 in the same period last year. Emigration remained unchanged at over 48,000 people. On balance, the population therefore grew by 18,000 people due to migration, 13,000 fewer than in Q1 of 2025.

The natural growth of the Dutch population has been negative for some time, meaning that more residents die than babies are born. In the first quarter, 40,000 babies were born, and 48,000 people died. The number of births was 1,000 higher than a year earlier, and the number of deaths remained nearly the same. Natural growth amounted to -8,200 in the first quarter, compared to -9,800.

CBS also reported that the number of first asylum applications increased significantly in the first quarter of this year. Nearly 6,000 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands for the first time, 33 percent more than a year earlier, but 20 percent less than in Q4 of 2026.

“There is a particular increase in asylum applications from people with an unknown nationality,” CBS said. 1,100 people with an unknown nationality applied for asylum last quarter. “This makes them the largest group submitting a first application.” In recent years, the number of applications from people with an unknown nationality fluctuated between 185 and 400 per quarter. The number of these applications has been rising steadily since the first quarter of 2025.

“These include, for example, people who do not state a nationality or claim not to know their nationality. It may also concern children born in the Netherlands to parents whose nationality has not been established, or people who hold the nationality of a country that does not (or no longer) exist or is not recognized by the Netherlands,” CBS explained.

There was also an increase in the number of first asylum applications from people from Sudan (485 in Q1 2026, compared to 45 in Q1 2025) and Somalia (360, compared to 145). The number of new asylum seekers from Syria decreased by 410 to 530. Despite this large decrease, Syrians remain the second-largest group of new asylum seekers.