Population growth in the Netherlands slowed in the first nine months of 2024 as net migration fell by almost 20% compared to last year, official figures show.

Just over 243,000 people arrived in the country in the year to September while more than 154,000 left. The overall increase was 89,300, compared to 109,400 last year, the statistics agency CBS said.

Migration is now the only driver of population growth after deaths outnumbered births for the second year running, by a margin of 3,500. The Dutch population passed the 18 million mark in August, according to CBS estimates.

Overall immigration has come down since the spike in 2022 caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when 322,000 people arrived in the first nine months of the year.

Nearly 18,000 Syrians have moved to the Netherlands so far this year, mostly as asylum seekers, an increase of 4,000 compared to last year, while 700 left the country.

The Dutch government has asked officials to examine whether parts of Syria, which has been ravaged by a decade-long civil war, can be declared safe so that more refugees can be turned away or sent home.

The figures also show far fewer people are moving to the Netherlands from other European Union nations. Net migration from Poland and Bulgaria has dropped by 75% since 2022 while more Germans left the country than arrived in 2024.

Overall the number of EU nationals has grown by just under 30,000 so far this year, compared to 120,000 over the same period in 2023.

Around one in eight immigrants and a quarter of emigrants are Dutch nationals, with more Dutch people leaving the country than returning home in most years. So far this year the net emigration figure has been 7,800, slightly more than in 2023 but lower than in 2022.