Amsterdam: City becoming 'Whiter'
According to a study by the municipal DRO department, Amsterdam is becoming 'Whiter' (NL), since ethnic Dutch women are having more children, while immigrant families are getting smaller.
Immigration to Amsterdam is also changing character: more and more highly-educated youth, educated both in the Netherlands and abroad, are coming to the city.
Between January and September 2010, Amsterdam grew by around 10,000 people. In 2009, Amsterdam grew by more than 11,000 - the biggest population increase in more than 35 years. The city now has about 767,000 residents.
Julian Jansen (DRO), says that this increase is also due to the fact that ethnic Dutch women are having more children. In 1996, a Dutch woman in Amsterdam had one child on average, compared with 1.4 today. The opposite happened with non-Western immigrants. Fourteen years ago, they had 2.3 children on average per woman, compared with 1.9 children today.
In addition the city is attracting working couples with children. Jansen: In the past you left after your studies to the region. Now more people are staying on, percentage-wise. Amsterdam in an emancipation-city, you have here good opportunities to develop.
Councillor Maarten van Poelgeest (GroenLinks) is satisfied: It looks like we managed to attract talent in the last decade . It's now a question of keeping it and continuing on.
