In the Netherlands the share of the population comprised of foreigners is lower than the EU-27 average, according to new figures from the EU statistics office Eurostat. These percentages are only lower in Finland and in Eastern / Central European countries (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Poland).

In 2011, 4 percent of the population in the Netherlands (673.200 people) were citizens of other countries and 11,2 percent of the population were Dutch citizens born outside of the Netherlands. This compares to 6,6 and 9,7 percent respectively in the EU-27 as a whole.

In 2001, 4,2 percent of the population in the Netherlands were citizens of other countries, and the Netherlands, Estonia, and Latvia are the only EU-27 countries in which this percentage has decreased over time.

In the Netherlands foreigners are pretty evenly split between citizens of EU-27 and non-EU countries. Meanwhile, in almost all Member States (Luxembourg, Cyprus, Ireland and Belgium being the significant exceptions) the majority of foreigners are non-EU citizens, and in the EU-27 as a whole two-thirds of foreigners are non-EU citizens.

In 2011, the main countries of birth of the foreign-born population in the Netherlands were Turkey (10,6 percent of the total foreign-born population), Suriname (10 percent), and Morocco (9 percent).

 Proportion of foreigners & foreign-born in the total population, 2011 (%). Source: Eurostat

In the EU-27 as a whole, citizens of Romania and Turkey were the most numerous among foreigners, numbering at over 2,3 million each, followed by approximately 1,9 million Moroccans and 1,6 million Poles living in another EU Member State.

The number of people living in an EU Member State which is not their country of citizenship has continued to increase, reaching 33,3 million in 2011. As of 1 January 2011, more than 75 percent of the foreigners in the EU resided in Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and France. In relative terms foreigners were most numerous (over 10 percent of the resident population) in Luxembourg, Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Spain, Austria and Belgium.