The population of the Netherlands is growing solely due to the influx of migrants, according to the Dutch office of statistics which published its report on Thursday, May 1st.
More people died in the first quarter of this year than babies were born, resulting in the population decreasing by almost 10,000.
However, a lot more people immigrated to the Netherlands than those who emigrated—this has led to a population increase of 31,000.
The number of those who came to the country in the first three months of the year was higher than in the same period of last year: 79,000 compared to 75,000.
The largest group of immigrants were Syrians, most of whom came to the Netherlands as asylum seekers. There was also an increase of immigrants from Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.
