Figures released by the Netherlands’ Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in the last week show a new population milestone. The country’s population has reached a total of 18 million people for the first time.

According to Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, the current number of inhabitants is “crazy”.

Wilders announced: “18 million people on a small piece of land. Last year, on balance, 142,000 more immigrants. While there is a huge shortage of housing, healthcare, police. Crazy. Queen Juliana said it back in 1980: the Netherlands is full. Now chock full.”

The new figures also point to the speed of population growth, with the 17 million mark reached just eight years ago, in 2016. The new Netherlands population figure, announced on Thursday August 15th, means that the latest one million people was reached roughly twice as quickly as the previous million.

Growth in this recent period is entirely attributable to migration from abroad; the Netherlands’ low birth rate does not even begin to compensate for the number of Dutch deaths (what demographers call the ‘replacement rate’).

At the time of writing, the population of the Netherlands sits at approximately 18.244 million, a 14 per cent increase since 2000. The fertility rate (average number of births per mother) is currently at 1.43.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


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