As of 2021, the Netherlands has a population of 17.5 million, making it the 68th largest country in the world by this measure. There are 49.7% males and 50.3% females.

There are 8.6 million people employed in the Netherlands, with an unemployment rate of 4.3% – 389,200 people.


The Netherlands is the 17th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $935bn. The Netherlands’s GDP has grown by 10% between 2010 and 2021 and is expected to grow by 17% by 2025.

As of 2021 there are 927,700 students in tertiary education in the Netherlands, with 1.7 million students in secondary and 1.2 million in primary education. The Netherlands spent 5.4% of its GDP on education in 2019.

The Netherlands ranked 42nd in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report (2020). In the 2019 report it finished 36th. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (2019), the Netherlands finished 4th, after ranking 4th in 2018.

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Public healthcare expenditure totalled $74.6bn and private healthcare expenditure equalled $16.2bn in 2018.

The largest urban areas in the Netherlands are Amsterdam (3.3 million people), Rotterdam (1.9 million) and Groot/Amsterdam (1.4 million).