Population of the Netherlands on the rise again

VOORBURG - The population of the Netherlands has risen by 46,000 to 16.4 million people. Last year’s increase was twice as big as in 2006 and mostly due to more immigrants arriving and fewer emigrants leaving. The largest group of immigrants came from Poland (10,000), followed by Germany (7,000) and Bulgaria (5,000). The number of arrivals from Morocco (nearly 2,000) and Turkey (nearly 3,000) declined somewhat. The number of emigrants has declined, but remains higher than it was in the early part of this century. Over half of the 123,000 departures were born in the Netherlands, followed by nearly 5,000 Germans and more than 3,000 Poles. The net increase through births over deaths was 48,000. In 2007, Dutch women gave birth to nearly 181,000 babies, 4,000 fewer than the year before. The number of deaths (133,000) during that period, also was lower.