Population The Hague to surpass the 500 thousand mark in September

The population of The Hague is anticipated to surpass the 500 thousand mark in September this year, having grown by nearly 60 thousand since the turn of the century. The proportion of young residents under the age of 20 has increased markedly and at the same time, the proportion of over-65s has declined.

Considerable growth since 2002

The population of The Hague has increased almost continually since 2000 and has grown substantially in 2002 when the number of Dutch municipalities was reduced further. Other factors contributing to the population growth were people moving in from other municipalities, more foreign migrants and natural population growth.

The population increase caused by people moving to The Hague from other municipalities is partly due to the construction of new housing estates like Leidschenveen. This is not the first time for The Hague to surpass the 500 thousand mark. In the early 1960s, the population even exceeded 600 thousand.

Population The Hague

More young people, fewer over-65s

The share of young people in the population of The Hague has increased over the past 15 years. The proportion of people under the age of 20 has grown from 21.4 percent in 1996 to 23.0 percent in 2011, whereas for the Netherlands as a whole, the proportion of people younger than 20 declined marginally. The increase in The Hague is caused by an increase in the number of households with children.

Simultaneously, the over-65 population in The Hague shrank from 17.1 to 12.9 percent. This is surprising, because elsewhere across the Netherlands the over-65 population grew from 13.3 to 15.6 percent in the same period.

Population The Hague by age

Nearly half have foreign background

The share of people with a foreign background has grown from 37 to 49 percent in The Hague between 1996 and 2011. On 1 January this year, 241 thousand residents of The Hague had a foreign background, i.e. 73 thousand had a western background and 168 thousand had a non-western background. The most substantial increase by nearly 10 percentage points was recorded among people with a non-western background. The population with a non-western background comprises four large groups. The proportion of Turks grew most. People from Surinam are still the largest ethnic group in The Hague.

The group of people with a western foreign background grew by just over 2 percentage points. The largest group of people with a western background are people from the former Dutch East Indies or Indonesia. This category declined by 15 percent, while the group of other western migrants grew by 65 percent.

Population The Hague by country of origin

Lenny Stoeldraijer and Suzanne Loozen