Dutch population grows mainly due to immigration

The population of the Netherlands grew fast in the first half of 2019, mainly due to immigration, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics CBS announced on Wednesday.

The Dutch population grew with 46,000 people in the first half of 2019, compared to a rise of 32,000 in full-year 2018, and reached a total of 17.3 million. This growth is mainly caused by immigration.

The number of immigrants rose in the first half of 2019 to nearly 113,000, compared to 101,000 immigrants in the same period last year. The number of emigrants rose from 70,000 to 72,000 in the first half of 2019.

The most striking group of immigrants are the immigrants from India. Indians now form the largest group of immigrants to the Netherlands after Poland, rising by 2,900 in the first half of the year, compared to 2,200 in the same period last year.

"Indian immigrants are mainly knowledge migrants," the CBS stated. "Three out of four Indian knowledge migrants are employed in IT and information services. In this sector, Indian immigrants are mainly concerned with the development, production and publishing of software, but also with advice in the field of information technology."

In addition, many migrants from India are united with their family and a small part are study migrants. Polish migrants are still the largest immigration group in the Netherlands, with an increase of around 5,500 Polish residents in the first half of 2019.

The total number of migrants from Europe increased, from more than 14,000 in the first half of 2018 to almost 21,000 in the first half of 2019. The number of migrants with an Asian and American background also rose and the number of migrants from Africa remained the same.

The natural increase of the Dutch population amounted to only 5,000 people. This is still higher than in the first half of 2018, when it was only 1,000, because the number of deaths was higher at that time, which is about 81,000. In the first half of 2019, nearly 82,000 children were born in the Netherlands and more than 77,000 died.