The number of homeless people in the Netherlands has increased just like last year. On January 1, 2024, there were around 33,000 homeless people between the ages of 18 and 65, according to the last estimate that the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published on Tuesday. A year earlier there were still 30,600 people in the Netherlands without a permanent place of residence. That again means an increase, this time almost 8 percent.
Between 2018 and 2022, the number of homeless people in the Netherlands fell consistently to 22,600 on January 1, 2022 for a number of years. Since then, a strong increase has been shown for two years.
The figures from Statistics Netherlands are an estimate every year. But a relatively small part of the homeless is registered, for example with a daycare or the probation service. The majority, around 70 percent, do not have a postal address or social assistance benefit for homeless people and must be ‘adjusted’ due to a lack of registration. Figures are missing from 2019, because the probation service switched to a new system that year.
Homeless from outside Europe
Just as in previous years, the vast majority of the homeless man (83 percent) is. It is striking that almost half is not born in the Netherlands. 37 percent comes from outside Europe, a little more than a year earlier. 9 percent from another European country. For example, this can be labor migrants, but that distinction does not make Statistics Netherlands. 21 percent themselves were born in the Netherlands, but has a parent from abroad. A third of the homeless has two parents from the Netherlands and was also born in the Netherlands.
In the four major cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), where there was almost a third of the homeless on January 1, 2024, 70 percent of the homeless from outside Europe comes or have parents from outside Europe. In other municipalities, this is a significantly smaller part with 48 percent. Relatively many more homeless people stayed there who, like their parents, are born in the Netherlands (41 percent). In the big cities that is only 16 percent.
Groups are not included
Statistics Netherlands regards people without a permanent place of residence. who sleep on the street or in a car, for example, as homeless. Just like people who can only temporarily sleep in a daycare or with family or friends.
Groups still remain out of the picture with the estimation method of Statistics Netherlands. For example, the figures are only about 18 to 65-year-olds, because children and over-65s fall outside the basic registration of people (BPR). People who stay structurally in social relief also fall outside the estimate, just like people who are in danger of being put out of the house. Moreover, there are people who cannot come to the registers, such as exhausted asylum seekers.