Between 2009 and 2023, the population of Maastricht increased, from just over 118,000 to roughly 123,000 inhabitants. This was just over ten percent of the total number of people living in the Limburg province, of which Maastricht is the capital. In 2023, Limburg’s population amounted to roughly 1.12 million inhabitants, making it the seventh province in the country based on population size.

 Largest cities in the Netherlands   

Although a sizable city for Dutch standards, Maastricht was not among the ten largest cities in the Netherlands in 2022. The capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, is the largest city in the country, with roughly 883,000 inhabitants, followed by Rotterdam and The Hague. Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Almere, Groningen, Breda and Nijmegen are all larger than Maastricht as well.

Leading university for international students  

Outside of the Netherlands, Maastricht is well-known for its research university, which attracts students from all over the world. Maastricht University has the largest number of international students of all institutes in the Netherlands, numbering roughly 10.9 thousand in 2020/21. According to the most recent figures, over 55 percent of Maastricht University’s students had roots outside the Netherlands – more than any other university in the country.

Attitude to unification of Europe. Poverty in personal surroundings, in the country and in Europe. Topics: Contentment with life; satisfaction with democracy; expected personal as well as general economic development; expected development of general employment situation as well as of one´s own occupational situation; personal opinion leadership and frequency of political discussions; postmaterialism; frequency of obtaining news from television, radio and newspapers; recently (or split: in the last 3 months) obtaining information about the EC and its institutions; most important sources of information about the EU; interest in European policies; judgement on one´s own extent to which informed about the EC and its institutions; interest in further information about the EC; interest in a telephone or fax hotline to ask for information about the EC; attitude to purchase of broadcast time to disseminate EC information on television; knowledge of information services of the EC; attitude to unification of Western Europe; advantageousness of EC membership of one´s own country; regret of a possible failure of the EC; judgement on the current speed of European unification as well as desired speed of unification; desired division of responsibility in selected political areas among national government or EC; feeling as a European; approval of a European Government responsible to a European Parliament; satisfaction with the functioning of democracy in the EC; attitude to the EC Commission, the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, the Common Market, the Treaty of Maastricht, agriculture reform, the GATT negotiations with the USA as well as the efforts of the EC to solve the Yugoslavia conflict; most important problems of the EC; decision behavior with a referendum about the Treaty of Maastricht; attitude to selected possibilities of European cooperation in monetary policy, social policy, foreign policy, combating crime, the right to vote, the economy and defense, as provided in the Maastricht Treaty; institutions responsible for providing information about the EC to the population; hope for the European market and expected advantageousness for one´s own country; intent to participate in the European Election in June 1994; party preference; controversies which could influence one´s own voting decision; judgement on the highest national court as well as the European Court of Justice; European countries visited in 1993 and checks at the border crossings experienced in this. Most important problems of the world; perceived poverty in one´s country, in the immediate vicinity as well as in the EC in general; poverty in the circle of family or friends; frequency of perception of poverty (split: social fringe groups); frequency of direct contacts with people in poverty; poverty from origins or new poverty; perceived reasons for falling into poverty (or split:social fringe group); development of poverty in the immediate vicinity in the last 10 years; perceived chance of the poor to free themselves from their situation; existence of hopeless cases; classification of selected situations in life and circumstances as indicators for the attribute poverty; parents who cannot raise their children due to poverty and people without adequate health care in one´s country; perceived injustice of society regarding the respondent; expected social mobility of one´s own children; earlier, current as well as future expected feeling of exclusion from society; demands of an up-to-date standard of living and demands currently not fulfilled (scale); perceived deprivations in the area of welfare, society and one´s own psyche; judgement on one´s own quality of life on selected situations and areas of life through judging one´s own residence, the environment, income, occupational situation, standard of living, leisure time, nutrition, demand on social services, traffic opportunities, one´s own condition of health, time available, level of education, recognition from others as well as dealing with other people; necessity of restrictions due to insufficient income; recommendation for elimination of poverty; preferred areas for the fight against poverty; attitude to provision of minimum support levels in selected areas of daily life; attitude to a minimum income; judgement on national efforts against poverty; knowledge of a legally guaranteed minimum income and of the prerequisites for entitlement; minimum income as absolute r...

BackgroundCardiac troponins and NT-proBNP are biomarkers of cardiac injury that are used clinically in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and heart failure. It is not known whether the amount, types and patterns of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour are associated with levels of cardiac biomarkers.MethodsIn the population-based Maastricht Study (n = 2,370, 51.3% male, 28.3% T2D) we determined cardiac biomarkers hs-cTnI, hs-cTnT, and NT-proBNP. PA and sedentary time were measured by activPAL and divided into quartiles [quartile 1 (Q1) served as reference]. The weekly pattern of moderate-to-vigorous PA (insufficiently active; regularly actives; weekend warriors) and coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated. Linear regression analyses were conducted with adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, and cardiovascular risk factors.ResultsThere was no consistent pattern between physical activity (different intensities: total, light, moderate-to-vigorous and vigorous) and sedentary time on the one hand and hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT on the other. Those with the highest levels of vigorous intensity PA had significantly lower levels of NT-proBNP. With regard to PA patterns, weekend warriors and regularly actives had lower levels of NT-proBNP but not with hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT (reference:insufficiently actives). A higher weekly moderate-to-vigorous PA CV (indicating more irregular activity) was associated with lower levels of hs-cTnI and higher levels of NT-proBNP, but not with hs-cTnT.ConclusionsIn general, there was no consistent association between PA and sedentary time and cardiac troponins. In contrast, vigorous and possibly moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA, especially if done regularly, were associated with lower levels of NT-proBNP.

BackgroundDetrimental associations of sedentary behaviour (time spent sitting) with musculoskeletal pain (MSP) conditions have been observed. However, findings on those with, or at risk of, type 2 diabetes (T2D) have not been reported. We examined the linear and non-linear associations of device-measured daily sitting time with MSP outcomes according to glucose metabolism status (GMS).MethodsCross-sectional data from 2827 participants aged 40–75 years in the Maastricht Study (1728 with normal glucose metabolism (NGM); 441 with prediabetes; 658 with T2D), for whom valid data were available on activPAL-derived daily sitting time, MSP [neck, shoulder, low back, and knee pain], and GMS. Associations were examined by logistic regression analyses, adjusted serially for relevant confounders, including moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and body mass index (BMI). Restricted cubic splines were used to further examine non-linear relationships.ResultsThe fully adjusted model (including BMI, MVPA, and history of cardiovascular disease) showed daily sitting time to be significantly associated with knee pain in the overall sample (OR = 1.07, 95%CI: 1.01–1.12) and in those with T2D (OR = 1.11, 95%CI: 1.00–1.22); this was not statistically significant in those with prediabetes (OR = 1.04, 95%CI: 0.91–1.18) or NGM (OR = 1.05, 95%CI: 0.98–1.13). There were no statistically significant associations between daily sitting time and neck, shoulder, or low back pain in any of the models. Furthermore, the non-linear relationships were statistically non-significant.ConclusionAmong middle-aged and older adults with T2D, daily sitting time was significantly associated with higher odds of knee pain, but not with neck, shoulder, or low back pain. No significant association was observed in those without T2D for neck, shoulder, low back, or knee pain. Future studies, preferably those utilising prospective designs, could examine additional attributes of daily sitting (e.g., sitting bouts and domain-specific sitting time) and the potential relationships of knee pain with mobility limitations.