The number of homeless people in the Netherlands has risen by 74% to 31,000 over the past six years, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.

In particular, the number of homeless people with a non-western background has doubled to 13,000, the CBS said.

Jan Laurier of the emergency shelter federation Opvang told broadcaster Nos there are two main causes: changes to the care of people with mental health problems mean more are ending up on the streets and more people have lost their homes because of the financial crisis.

The figures only cover people who are officially registered as homeless and do not include illegal immigrants or failed asylum seekers who are expected to return home.

The CBS figures show men make up by the far the majority of the homeless and most are aged 30 to 50.