Deaths outstrip births for first time in Netherlands 

More people died than were born in the Netherlands for the first time since 1900, national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday, Report informs, citing Dutch News.

The total growth last year – taking the population up to 17.8 million – was, therefore, entirely down to migration, CBS said. The figures, which include estimates for December, are an update on an earlier forecast published in October. In total, 168,000 babies were born in the Netherlands in 2022, while 169,000 people died.

‘The fact that the population actually shrank for the first time is rather special,’ CBS analyst Dick ter Steege told NOS radio. The oldest comparable figures that CBS has date from 1900.

The fact that more people died than expected is partly due to the coronavirus, but no explanation has been found for some deaths.

‘The birth rate has been falling, and deaths have been increasing for years, so it could be a temporary dip,’ Ter Steege said. ‘But if the excess deaths stop next year, then more babies will be born than people dying.’ In total, the population of the Netherlands increased by 227,000 last year, more than double the 2021 figure when coronavirus measures slowed immigration.