Trend Migration-driven population growth in the Netherlands

Summary

The report treats the Netherlands as a clear case of the international ageing and migration trend. Being a prosperous country, it has low fertility yet a strong appetite for workers from abroad, so its population is growing mainly through immigration, a pattern likely to hold for decades. Practically all of the increase can be traced to four migration routes, namely labour, knowledge, study and asylum migration. Scenarios from the statistics office CBS and the demographic institute NIDI likewise identify migration as the main engine of growth, with net inflows well above 100,000 a year recently. This sets the country apart from many other states in Europe and beyond that already face, or will soon face, population decline.