Largest population growth in Flevoland

In the last five years, every square kilometre in the Netherlands has had to accommodate another 15 people on average. In the province of Flevoland this growth rate was three times as high: 39 more inhabitants settled down here per square kilometre in the last five years.

Although Flevoland is still more sparsely populated than the rest of the Netherlands, because it began with a very small population, the density of the population there is growing relatively strongly. While for the whole of the Netherlands the number of inhabitants per square kilometre has risen by 3% since 1996, for Flevoland this growth rate was 20%.

Population density per province

This surge is mainly caused by large expansions of the towns Zeewolde and Almere. In Zeewolde the number of inhabitants has increased by 36% in the last five years, in Almere by 32%. This growth, to just over 149,000 inhabitants in 2001, makes Almere the twelfth largest municipality in the country. In 1996 it was still only twentieth.

In the provinces of Limburg, Zeeland and Groningen population growth was around 1% in the last five years, only one third of the national average.

Cor Pierik