Population pyramid

The population pyramid shows the demographic composition of the Netherlands by age group in each year. For every age group, the number of men is shown on the left and the number of women on the right. The pyramid begins in 1950 and also provides a forecast regarding future decades.

Click ‘play’ to see how the population has changed over the years. You can pin an age by clicking on it: for example, you can see how the group of 5-year-olds in 1950 changes over the years. Move the mouse over the pyramid to see how many men and women each age group consists of. The 'surplus' button shows whether there are more men or women in a given age group.

What does the population pyramid show us?

Each year starts with the number of children born. This group moves up to a higher age every year. As the age group gets older it will also get smaller as some people in that group pass away. An age group can also become larger due to immigration (most immigrants are in their twenties and thirties), or smaller due to emigration. When there are more children than older people, the chart has a true pyramid shape. Take 1950, for example: here, the post-war baby boom generation is clearly visible. Currently, however, only the top of the chart is pyramid-shaped. In the future, the chart will be shaped more like an urn, with a bulge for the age groups between twenty and thirty years.

Men and women

Every year, more boys than girls are born in the Netherlands. On average, men die at a younger age than women. Up until about the age of forty there are slightly more men than women, after which the ratio of men to women almost evens out. By the age of sixty, there are more women than men. This difference then increases with age.

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