In 2022, almost all municipalities will grow in population. This is evident from figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Wednesday. The large-scale migration flow from Ukraine in particular has contributed to the population growth. Of the 402,000 migrants who settled in the Netherlands in 2022, almost 90,000 fled from Ukraine.
The strong migration growth means that relatively many municipalities did not have fewer inhabitants this year, but actually more. The population shrank in only nine of the 344 municipalities last year. The current growth across the board is a major turnaround compared to two years ago, when the population shrank in 61 municipalities. Currently, death and birth rates are fairly balanced.
Without migration from abroad and mainly from Ukraine, many municipalities would still have a negative population growth balance: due to the rapid aging of the population, more people die than babies are born in 62 percent of the municipalities.
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Big cities are growing
Twenty years ago this was the case for 13 percent of the municipalities. Although the whole of the Netherlands is subject to ageing, the Randstad and Flevoland are relatively spared. Municipalities in Zeeland, Limburg, along the North Sea coast and in Overijssel and Gelderland have the largest mortality surpluses.
The populations of the largest ten municipalities increased one by one. Eindhoven is at the top with 22,000 more inhabitants than in 2021, followed by Almere (21,000) and Amsterdam (20,000). Eindhoven and Amsterdam grew mainly through foreign migration. Almere also had to deal with a relatively high number of domestic relocations and new births.
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