Origin

How many residents of the Netherlands were born abroad?

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Of the 17.5 million people residing in the Netherlands on 1 January 2021, 14.0 percent were born abroad. They came to the Netherlands as migrants. Another 11.4 percent of the population were born in the Netherlands as children of migrants.

On 1 January 2021, the Netherlands had 15.1 million residents born in the Netherlands, just under 2 million of whom are children of migrants. They have one or two parents who were born abroad. Just over half (1.1 million) have one foreign-born and one Netherlands-born parent, while just under half (890 thousand) have two foreign-born parents. Almost 2.5 million residents of the Netherlands are migrants, i.e. people who were born abroad. The vast majority of this group have two parents who were also born abroad (2.2 million).