May 10, 2006: Dutch Population Growth At Record Low
Dutch population growth at record low
10 May 2006
AMSTERDAM Over 22,000 immigrants took up residence in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2006, according to the latest figures by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This is 2,000 more than the same period last year.
“The increase consists mainly of returning Dutch people and immigrants from Poland. Emigration rose fast in the first quarter. That is mainly why the number of inhabitants of the Netherlands rose by only 2,000, the lowest figure on record,” the CBS said.
There were six hundred more returning Dutch people than the year before, bringing the total to 5,000 for the quarter. The number of Polish immigrants increased to 1.8 thousand in the first quarter of
2006. That makes Polish people the second largest group of immigrants, after the returning Dutch. “There are hardly any immigrants from the other Eastern European countries that joined the European Union on 1 May 2004,” the CBS said.
Emigration continues to rise. In the first quarter of 2006, 29,000 people left the Netherlands, an increase of 5,000 on the year before. The trend began in 2001. The number of emigrants born in the Netherlands increased from 11,000 to over 13,000. The number of emigrants not born in the Netherlands increased by 2,000 to almost 16,000.
“Due to the rise in emigration, the Netherlands has an emigration surplus for the third year in a row,” the report said.
Due to the rise in emigration, the Dutch population only increased by 2,000 in the first quarter of 2006. The decreasing birth rate also contributed to the low population growth. The number of deaths, however, was also lower than in 2005. It was the lowest quarterly population increase on record.
“Generally the population growth rate is lower in the first few months of the year than in other months. In March 2006 the number of inhabitants actually fell by 500. On 1 April the Netherlands had 16.338 million inhabitants,” the CBS said.
