Persons with a foreign background

Statistics Netherlands defines a person as having a foreign background if at least one of his or her parents was born abroad.

People with a non-western foreign background comprise people from Turkey or countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, with the exception of Former Dutch East Indies/Indonesia and Japan.  All other persons not originating from the Netherlands are included under foreigners with a western background. The first generation consists of men and women born outside the Netherlands. The second generation are men and women born in the Netherlands of whom at least one parent was born abroad.

Native Dutch people are people whose parents were both born in the Netherlands, regardless of where they themselves were born. The ethnic origin is determined on the basis of the country of birth (first generation) or mother’s country of birth (second generation), unless the mother was born in the Netherlands, in which case the father’s country of birth is taken.