The Dutch population will continue to grow in the coming decades to
over 18.4 million people by 2060, according to the latest prognosis by
Statistics Netherlands. The 18 millionth inhabitant is expected in 2031.
By 2040 almost a quarter of the Dutch population will be elderly, and
by 2060 just over a third will have their roots in the outside world,
according to the stats office.
The population of the Netherlands is growing because more people move
to the Netherlands than move away, and because of the increasing
lifespan. "In the coming years, more children will also be born, but
that will not be sufficient in the long run to compensate for the
increasing number of deaths", Statistics Netherlands writes. According
to the current forecast,
from the end of the 2030s more residents will
die each year than are born.
Over the past two decades, the Dutch population grew by 1.5 million
people. 86 percent of this increase involve people with a migration
background. People immigrating to the Netherlands for work or study
increased sharply over the past en years. And more recently, the
Netherlands also saw a mass increase in asylum migrants. Though
immigration from tradition countries of origin like Morocco, Turkey and
Suriname decreased.
In the coming decades, the number of Netherlands residents with a
migration background will increase, while the residents with a Dutch
background will decrease, Statistics Netherlands expects.
This year 23
percent of the population have a migration background, by 2060 this will
increase to 34 percent. "Both now and in the future, more than half of
those with a migration background were born in the Netherlands, with at
least one parent born abroad."
The number of elderly residents will also increase in the coming
decades, due to the high birth rates immediately after the Second World
War and in the 1950s and '60s. Another factor is that lifespan increased
over the paEU-Digestst years and continues to rise. According to the prognosis,
the proportion of the population aged 65 and older will increase from 18
percent in 2017 to 24 percent in 2040.
According to Statistics Netherlands, this prognosis has a level of
uncertainty. Migration fluctuates from year to year, which means there
is great uncertainty in the prognosis of immigration and emigration on
the short term. Birth and mortality rates are easier to predict in the
short term, but uncertainty increases in the long term. Taking these
uncertainties into account, the Dutch population will be between 17.2
million and 19.7 million people in 2060.
Note EU -Digest: Bottom line: the Netherlands needs more immigrants, obviously this immigration stream needs to be far better controlled and administered than it is presently done. New citizens should also be required to swear their alliance to the Netherlands/EU during a special Public ceremony in presided over by a Judge, when inducted as citizens of the Netherlands/EU and agree not to serve in any other military force, except that of the Netherlands or the common EU defense force.
Read more: Netherlands population getting more diverse; To hit 18 million by 2031 | NL Times
