Not surprisingly, the capital of the Netherlands is also its largest city. At around *******, Amsterdam has over ******* inhabitants more than the second-largest city in the country, Rotterdam. The Hague and Utrecht, the third and fourth-largest cities in the Netherlands, together have approximately as many inhabitants as Amsterdam alone. Amsterdam and the pressure on the housing market A rapidly growing city, Amsterdam’s population increased from roughly ***** thousand to around ***** thousand in the last decade. This has created pressure on the real estate market, where average rent and housing prices have skyrocketed. In the first quarter of 2010, the average rent of residential property amounted to roughly ***** euros per square meter. In the first quarter of 2021, this had increased to over ***** euros per square meter.  2030 Outlook  In the nearby future, Amsterdam is set to remain the Netherlands’ largest city. According to a recent forecast, by 2030 Amsterdam will have broken the barrier of one million inhabitants. Rotterdam, Den Haag and Utrecht are forecast to grow too, albeit at a much lower pace. In 2030, Rotterdam is expected to reach just under ******* inhabitants.

According to this population forecast, in 2030 Amsterdam will remain the largest city in the Netherlands. It is forecast that the capital will have over one million inhabitants in 2030. Rotterdam, currently the second-largest city in the country, will keep its spot. By 2030, the population of Rotterdam is expected to reach just under 700,000 people.

This statistic shows the average number of months a house is for sale in the largest cities in the Netherlands in the second quarter of 2017. In the second quarter of 2017, it would take approximately 10 months to sell a house in Amsterdam. In the four largest municipalities, the demand of housing outweighs the supply. In December 2016, the average number of houses for sale in the municipality of Amsterdam was approximately ***** with this number reaching an average of ***** in December 2014.

Paris was Western Europe's largest city in 1650, with an estimated 400 thousand inhabitants, which is almost double it's population 150 years previously. In second place is London, with 350 thousand inhabitants, however it has grown by a substantially higher rate than Paris during this time, now seven times larger than it was in the year 1500. Naples remains in the top three largest cities, growing from 125 to 300 thousand inhabitants during this time. In the previous list, the Italian cities of Milan and Venice were the only other cities with more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, however in this list they have been joined by the trading centers of Lisbon and Amsterdam, the capital cities of the emerging Portuguese and Dutch maritime empires.

Famous for its port and football club Feyenoord, Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. In the last decade, Rotterdam’s population increased year on year, and in 2023, the city reached over 663,900 inhabitants. By comparison: that year Amsterdam’s population amounted to just under 883,000.

 Leading European container port   

The port of Rotterdam is one of the largest ports in the world. In 2020, roughly 8.436 million containers were processed here, making it Europe’s largest container port, before Antwerp and Hamburg. In 2018, the port of Rotterdam processed 289 million tons of bulk cargo.

Feyenoord, pride of Rotterdam  

Feyenoord Rotterdam is one of the most successful football clubs in Dutch history, with 15 national titles, 13 Dutch cups, three European cups and one World Cup won. As of September 2019, Feyenoord had the third highest market value of all Dutch football clubs, after Ajax and PSV. That month, Feyenoord’s market value reached 122.55 million euros.

The statistic illustrates the inbound tourism to the four main cities in the Netherlands from 2010 to 2014. The number of international visitors increased for all four cities between 2010 and 2014. Most tourists were found in and around Amsterdam with roughly 5.2 million tourists in 2014, an increase of roughly one million tourists when comparing it to the year 2010. When looking at the other cities, there were significantly less tourists than in Amsterdam. Rotterdam was the second city with the most tourists, approximately 442,000 in 2014. The Hague attracted roughly a little less than 420,000 tourists, whereas Utrecht attracted roughly 174,000. In general, looking at the forecast of inbound tourism for the Netherlands, it is estimated that in 2018 approximately 16.7 million tourists will visit the Netherlands. To compare, in 2017 there were roughly 16.3 million tourists, which means an increase of roughly half a million tourists in 2018.

Brussels was the home of five Bitcoin ATMs as of June 2020, whereas Amsterdam had more than 20 of these cryptocurrency installations. In general, Bitcoin ATMs were to be found in the bigger cities of the two cities, but they also sporadically appeared in smaller cities. No recent data exists on the market size of Bitcoin in either Belgium or the Netherlands. In the first three quarters of 2017, there were approximately 44,000 transactions in Bitcoin from the Netherlands on a domestic trading platform called BTC Direct. This lack of market data has two reasons. First, the design of the digital currency (meant to provide privacy) makes it is difficult to trace. Second, Bitcoin did not reach the news in the two countries that often after 2017. Approximately 60 percent of the households in the Netherlands who invested in cryptocurrencies started doing so in that year. Data on cryptocurrencies in Belgium and the Netherlands therefore mostly stems from 2017 and 2018, not from 2019.

What can be said about cryptocurrencies in Belgium and the Netherlands?

According to a survey held in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in early 2018, Dutch respondents had the highest cryptocurrency ownership. This could be any cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin but also Ethereum or Ripple. However, consumers from the Benelux region held much less blockchain-powered currencies than their European counterparts. Not only that, they also were less likely to buy into the trend of buying cryptocurrencies over time. This might have to do with the steep decline in Bitcoin prices by the time of the survey. The biggest reason for Dutch consumers to invest in the digital money was not because of technology or out of curiosity, but simply to earn money.

Who owns cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands?

Bitcoin was owned in roughly equal amounts by both male (69 percent) as well as female (65 percent) respondents to a 2018 survey in the Netherlands. Ethereum and Litecoin, however, were way more popular amongst male respondents. Women were overall less likely to invest in cryptocurrencies but did show an interest in coins like Ripple and TRON.

Rent prices per square meter in the largest Dutch cities have been on an upward trend after a slight decline in 2020. Amsterdam remained the most expensive city to live in, averaging a monthly rent of 27.6 euros per square meter for residential real estate in the private rental sector. Monthly rents in Utrecht were around six euros cheaper per square meter. Both cities were above the average rent price of residential property in the Netherlands overall, whereas Rotterdam and The Hague were slightly below that. Buying versus renting, what do the Dutch prefer? The Netherlands is one of Europe’s leading countries when it comes to homeownership, having funded this with a mortgage. In 2023, around 60 percent of people living in the Netherlands were homeowners with a mortgage. This is because Dutch homeowners were able to for many years to deduct interest paid from pre-tax income (a system known in the Netherlands as hypotheekrenteaftrek). This resulted in the Netherlands having one of the largest mortgage debts across the European continent. Total mortgage debt of Dutch households reached a value of approximately 803 billion euros in 2023. Is the Dutch housing market overheating? There are several indicators for the Netherlands that allow to investigate whether the housing market is overheating or not. House price indices corrected for inflation in the Netherlands suggest, for example, that prices have declined since 2022. The Netherlands’ house-price-to-rent-ratio, on the other hand, has exceeded the pre-crisis level in 2019. These figures, however, are believed to be significantly higher for cities like Amsterdam, as it was suggested for a long time that the prices of owner-occupied houses were increasing faster than rents in the private rental sector.

In 2022, the province most inhabited by first generation migrants in the Netherlands is South Holland (which includes cities such as The Hague and Rotterdam) housing over ******* first generation migrants. North Holland (which includes the city of Amsterdam), has the second most migrants living in its province with *******. The province which houses the least first generation migrants is Drenthe at ****** first generation immigrants.

Between 2007 and 2020, the number of coffeeshops in Rotterdam declined. In 2007, the second-largest city in the Netherlands counted just over 60 coffeeshops. Two years later, this had fallen to 44. In 2020, there were 39 coffeeshops in the city.

The region of Noord-Holland, whose largest city is Amsterdam, recorded the highest number of international hotel guests in the Netherlands in 2023, with approximately 9.3 million guests. Zuid-Holland was the second most popular Dutch region for inbound hotel guests that year, with nearly 2.2 million visitors.

In 2022 the GDP per capita in the Netherlands was ****** euros. During this year, the province with the highest GDP per capita was North Holland, which includes the capital city of Amsterdam, at ****** thousand euros. The province with the second-highest GDP per capita was Utrecht, which includes the city of Utrecht, at ****** euros. The province with the lowest GDP per capita was Drenthe at ****** euros.

In 2018, Amsterdam registered the highest number of overnight guests from Spain in the Netherlands. Over 270 thousand overnight guests from Spain visited Amsterdam in 2018. Utrecht saw the second highest number of overnight guests from Spain in 2018, with 18 thousand Spanish visitors choosing to stay in Utrecht.

This statistic shows the market share of buy-to-let (BTL) property sales in the four biggest cities of the Netherlands, namely Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, in 2017. Buy-to-let is a British term referring to private investors who purchase property (excluding holiday homes) so they can rent it out. In essence, it's a type of investment from the landlord.

The source states that since 2015 the buy-to-let market accelerated in the Netherlands with the number of buy-to-let mortgages reaching ****** in 2017. Interest is mostly focusing on the four big cities, with Rotterdam the stand-out buy-to-let city with a market share of approximately ** percent. In the second quarter of 2018, Rotterdam had a rent of approximately ***** euros per square meter. This was less than the national average of approximately ***** euros per square meters. Amsterdam, however, was more expensive.

The primary rental rates per square meter for warehouses of more than 5,000 square meters in the Netherlands for the second year in a row in 2023. The rental rate of warehouses in Rotterdam and Amsterdam amounted to 85 euros per square meter in that year. Due to the small size of the country and the relatively high connectivity to the big cities, there is less of a need for urban distribution centers (DCs) like in London or Berlin. Most take-up of logistics property could be found in the south of the country: the Venlo-Venray-Eindhoven area, along with Western Brabant (Breda-Moerdijk-Roosendaal). Which warehouses can be found in the south of the Netherlands? Most of the logistics property in the Netherlands was taken up for third-party logistics behind European retailers and e-commerce companies. Many international brands opened DCs in the country. Venlo, for example, supplies European fashion brands Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Under Armour via Trade Port Venlo Noord. Lidl opened its European e-commerce DC close to the city of Roosendaal in 2018. Other areas outside of the big cities are also gaining interest, however. Spain’s Inditex (the company behind Zara, Pull&Bear and Berschka) are to open a logistics center in Lelystad (east of Amsterdam and north of Utrecht) in 2019. Bigger = better? In 2022, demand was highest for medium and large-sized logistics property. Bigger properties allow more flexibility, but the supply of large lots for such facilities is limited. On the other hand, smaller properties can be built closer to urban centers, allowing for easy reach to the end customer.

In 2023, the number of international hotel guests in the selected Dutch cities increased significantly compared to the previous year. Overall, Amsterdam recorded by far the highest figure, with just under seven million inbound hotel guests in 2023. Rotterdam ranked second in the list, with 776 thousand inbound hotel guests. Accommodation services in Amsterdam: hotels vs. Airbnb Based on data on the accommodation establishments in Amsterdam broken down by type, there were just over 500 hotels in the popular Dutch destination in 2023. By comparison, the number of Airbnb listings in Amsterdam totaled nearly 9,000 as of March 2024, with entire homes and apartments accounting for most listings. How many inbound tourists visit the Netherlands? In 2023, the Netherlands ranked behind Austria and ahead of Poland in the list of the most visited European countries by inbound visitors, with over 20 million inbound tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, international tourism receipts in the Netherlands amounted to approximately 20 billion U.S. dollars that year, exceeding the figures recorded before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the largest foreign group of immigrants to the Netherlands came from Ukraine, with 99,700 immigrants. Polish, Dutch, Syrian and Turkish rounded out the top five foreign nationalities for immigrants to the Netherlands in that year.

In 2020, Liander was the operating manager (DSO or distribution system operator) with the highest market share in the Dutch electricity market. The Netherlands has a single electricity market, where taxes are imposed on a national basis. The country’s distribution network, however, operates on different regional levels. Liander, for example, operates in the Amsterdam area, whereas Stedin is active in cities like Rotterdam, Utrecht, and most of the South Holland and Utrecht provinces. Enexis operates in Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, Noord-Brabant, and Limburg.

What about energy companies in the Netherlands?

With Liander being the biggest electricity system operator, who is the biggest energy supplier in the Netherlands? As of 2018, it was estimated that Essent/energiedirect.nl had the most clients of all private energy companies active in the country. Market data for energy suppliers in the Netherlands is something domestic sources struggle to collect. In 2004, the Dutch government liberalized the supply of electricity and natural gas, allowing more energy suppliers to enter the market. As these companies do not have to openly share their data, the exact market shares are difficult to determine. This is different than in for example Belgium and Luxembourg, where companies have to share their data with the local authorities.

Electricity prices In the second half of 2021, the average electricity price for Dutch households was 14.5 euro cents per kilowatt-hour for a medium annual consumption (2.500 – 5.000 kilowatt-hours). This marked a price increase compared to a minimum reached in the first half of the year. In contrast, industrial prices of electricity did not drop in 2020 and increased continuously until 2021 instead.