The number of homeless people in the Netherlands has gone up for the second year in a row, latest figures from statistics agency CBS show.

At the beginning of 2024, an estimated 33,000 people were living rough, in their cars, a holiday home, a squat or at shelters, compared to 27,000 in 2022 and 30,000 in 2023, the agency found.

The upward trend is a break with the period between 2018 and 2021 when the number of homeless went down steadily from 40,000.

The agency said there was no obvious explanation for the renewed upward trend and the real figure is likely to be much higher as 70% of homeless people are not registered anywhere.

Almost half the “official” homeless are foreign nationals, with 9% born in another European country and 37% outside Europe. In the four big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, 70% of the homeless were born outside Europe or have parents who were born outside Europe.

Men account for 83% without a home and over half are between 27 and 50 years old.