The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Nearly half of the population also lives on one fifth of the country’s area, within the largely interconnected urban area in the west called Randstad Holland.
Randstad Holland includes the four largest cities Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam, as well as a number of other municipalities. Together they form one of the largest metropolises in Europe. This part of the country is also the most industrialized and fertile.
- COUNTRYAAH.COM: Key populations estimated size and data of Netherlands, including population density of how many people per square mile. Also included are facts for population and language.
The original population consists mainly of Dutch people, including up to 400,000 friezes, who mainly live in the province of Friesland in the north.
About a fifth of the residents are either born abroad or have at least one parent who is. Common countries of origin are Turkey, Morocco and the former Dutch colonies Indonesia and Surinam, as well as the Dutch territories in the Caribbean. Many also come from Germany and other countries in Europe.
The Netherlands has traditionally had a generous asylum and immigration policy. However, it has gradually been abandoned due to a large influx of asylum seekers. Nowadays, people who do not have identity documents are denied access to asylum, and the rules for family immigration and citizenship have been tightened since the late 1990s. Today special tests are required that measure knowledge of the Dutch language and society. During the early 2000s, the Netherlands had more immigrants than immigrants for several years, but that trend has reversed the great wave of migration to Europe. The Netherlands received 43,000 asylum seekers in 2015, almost half of whom came from Syria, and about 60 percent of them received asylum. A few years later, the number of asylum seekers had more than halved.
The official language is Dutch (often called Dutch) which belongs to the West German language group, which also includes English and German. Dutch is also spoken by about 6 million Belgians (then called Flemish) and some tens of thousands of people in northwestern France.
The Frisian language, closely related to Dutch and English, is recognized as a minority language. In Friesland, a public document can be drawn up only in Frisian, provided that it does not affect persons or conditions outside the province. Frisian is also used as a language of instruction in some schools in the province. English is the official language of the special municipalities of Sint Eustatius and Saba, while papiamentu is the official language of Bonaire (see Political system).
FACTS – POPULATION AND LANGUAGE
Population
Dutch about 90% (of which 2.5% are friezes), foreign born about 10% (mainly Turks, Surinamese and Moroccans)
Number of residents
17 132 854 (2017)
Number of residents per square kilometer
509 (2017)
Percentage of residents in the cities
91.1 percent (2017)
Nativity / birth
10.1 per 1000 residents (2016)
Mortality / mortality
8.7 per 1000 residents (2016)
POPULATION GROWTH
0.6 percent (2017)
fertility rate
1.7 number of births per woman (2016)
Percentage of women
50.2 percent (2017)
Life expectancy
82 years (2016)
Life expectancy for women
83 years (2016)
Life expectancy for men
80 years (2016)
Language
Dutch is officially language 1
- The minority language Frisian has a special position in the province of FrieslandKällor
2011
June
Geert Wilders acquitted
PVV leader Geert Wilders is cleared of suspected hate crimes (see October 2010). According to the judge, Wilder’s comments about Islam are vulgar and demeaning but do not call for hatred.
March
The VVD takes place in regional elections
The right-wing Liberal Party VVD becomes the largest in seven of the twelve provinces, thus taking the first place from the Christian Democratic CDA in six of them.