Population pyramid

The population pyramid displays the population composition in the Netherlands per year. For each age, the number of men is shown on the left and the number of women on the right. The pyramid contains figures as of 1950 and also provides a forecast for the coming decades.

The ‘play’ button shows the development through the years. You can pin an age by clicking on it: for example, you can see how the group of 5-year-olds in 1950 changes through the years. Move the mouse over the pyramid to see how many men and women each age group consists of. The 'surplus' button shows whether there are more men or women per age.

What do you see in the population pyramid?

Each year starts with the number of children who are born. This group moves up to a higher age every year. As age increases, groups get smaller because people pass away. An age group can also become larger due to immigration (mostly immigrants in their twenties and thirties), or smaller due to emigration. If there are more children than elderly people, the chart will have the shape of a true pyramid. Take 1950, for example. Here, the post-war baby boom generation is clearly visible. Nowadays, only the top has a pyramid shape. In the future, it will be more urn-shaped, with a bulge for the age groups between twenty and thirty years.

Men and women

On an annual basis, more boys than girls are born in the Netherlands. On average, men die at a younger age than women. There is a slight ‘male surplus’ until about the age of forty, after which the ratio of men to women almost evens out, tipping over into a ‘female surplus’ by the age of sixty. This surplus then increases with age.

Sources