Expats, who are they?

A report published this week by Statistics Netherlands - Expat, wanneer ben je het? (Expats who are they?) describes a first effort to delineate the group of expats in the Netherlands. This is done on the basis of a number of characteristics: born outside the Netherlands and non-Dutch nationality, at least 18 years of age but not older than 75, registered in the municipal population register, and earning a wage that falls within 15 to 35 percent of the highest wage levels in their sector. Depending on the salary level used, the number of expats varies from 39 thousand to 75 thousand persons. 

Relatively young, many Brits and Germans

One in four foreign employees with a high wage level come from England or Germany. For men, Indians make up the third largest group, (6 percent) and for women this is Poles. Most of them are aged between 18 and 40 years, not many are over 50 (8 percent).

Most live in the Randstad region

Most expats in the Netherlands live in the Randstad region in the west of the country, where most internationally oriented companies are located. Foreign knowledge workers also live in university cities such as Groningen, Wageningen, Utrecht, Enschede, Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Maastricht.

Concentration of high-earning foreign employees by municipality of residence, 31 December 2011