CBS: Population is growing less quickly than before, nineteen million Dutch expected in 2037

The Dutch population will grow less rapidly in the coming years than before. The population is expected to rise to nineteen million people by 2037. It will then take until 2058 before another million people will be added. The increase can be explained by migration and the fact that people live longer on average. That reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Tuesday morning based on forecasts.

If the expectation comes true, the maximum number of inhabitants advised by the State Commission on Demographic Developments will not be exceeded. Last January, that committee recommended that the Netherlands should actively pursue a “moderate population growth” of a maximum of 19 to 20 million inhabitants in 2050 in order to maintain “broad prosperity”. Politicians and administrators should make multi-year agreements on limiting migration, the committee advised, for example by mainly selecting knowledge migrants.

Aging

This year, a total of 105,000 people will probably arrive, mainly due to foreign migration. That is 26,000 fewer people than last year. Over the next five years, the population will grow by an average of 82,000 people annually. The Netherlands currently has just over 18 million inhabitants.

Due to travel restrictions during the corona crisis, the number of migrants fell in 2020. In the two following years, many Ukrainians fled to the Netherlands because of the war. There are now approximately 118,000 people from the Eastern European country registered in Dutch municipalities. In the future, researchers expect that more people will come to the Netherlands than leave the country. Because the number of deaths will increase after 2030 due to an aging population, the growth rate of the Dutch population will decrease.

‘Great concerns’

Last Tuesday, the Council of State expressed “great concerns” about the consequences of the asylum plans of Minister Marjolein Faber (Asylum and Migration, PVV), who wants to introduce “the strictest asylum regime ever” in the Netherlands. The Council of State expects that immigrants will initiate more procedures, which will increase the costs for the government. For example, the shortening of the term of residence permits from five to three years will result in more applications and lawsuits, the Council states, resulting in a higher workload.

To share





Email the editor