Homelessness increased 22% in Netherlands; 33,000 unhoused people last year

The number of homeless people living in the Netherlands increased for the second consecutive year in 2024. On January 1 last year, the Netherlands counted an estimated 33,000 unhoused people between the ages of 18 and 65, an increase of over 22 percent compared to the almost 27,000 people who were homeless at the start of 2023, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported.

CBS counts people as homeless if they sleep outside, in a car, squat, in a holiday home, or a homeless shelter. It also counts people temporarily staying with family, friends, or acquaintances. It bases its estimates on the number of people staying at shelters, with a welfare benefit tied to homelessness, and registrations from the probation services.

“This method can only be applied to people who could appear in the registrations used,” CBS said. So the estimate excludes undocumented people, or people who cannot receive welfare due to their age - children under 18 and people older than 65. That means the actual number of homeless people in the Netherlands is higher.

As in previous years, the vast majority (83 percent) of homeless people were men. Twenty percent were between 18 and 27 years old, 61 percent between 27 and 50, and 20 percent between 50 and 65.

According to CBS, nearly half of unhoused persons in the Netherlands were born outside the country - 9 percent in another European country and 37 percent outside Europe. Approximately 33 percent were born in the Netherlands and their parents were too. And 21 percent were born in the Netherlands, but one or both of their parents were not.

A third (32 percent) of homeless people live in one of the four large Dutch cities - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. “A clear majority (70 percent) of homeless people in the large cities were born outside Europe or have parents who were born outside Europe,” CBS said. “Outside the large cities, this is considerably lower at 48 percent.”