The population of the Netherlands grew by 103,000 last year to 18.05 million, and the increase was due entirely to migration, national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

At the same time, fewer people moved to the Netherlands from abroad, and more people left than in 2023, slowing the growth overall, the new figures show.

Fewer people moved to the Netherlands from other EU countries, particularly from Poland, Bulgaria, France, and Germany, the CBS said. Last year, 105,000 people moved to the Netherlands from another EU country, while nearly 87,000 people returned home or moved elsewhere.

The number of people moving to the Netherlands from India, the US, and South Africa also fell in 2024.

Figures from the immigration service IND, show a steady decline in the number of applications for a highly-skilled migrant visa (kennismigrant). In 2022, the IND dealt with 33,000 applications, in 2023 nearly 26,000 and last year 21,700.

The downturn comes as the right-wing government works on plans to reduce the number of people moving to the Netherlands to work and study, despite company concerns about the shortage of skilled workers.

Local authority “expat centres”, set up to help foreign nationals sort out their paperwork, have also reported a downturn in new arrival numbers of up to 30%.