Inburgering Routes in Numbers: B1, Onderwijsroute, and Z-Route Under the 2021 Law

Of the new inburgeraars (people with a civic-integration obligation) who have a learning route set under Wet inburgering 2021, about 7 in 10 are placed in the B1-route, roughly 1 in 4 in the Z-route (self-reliance route), and only a small share in the Onderwijsroute (education route). According to DUO open data, around 112,000 people had a route recorded by June 2026, out of roughly 145,000 who entered the new system since 2022. This page analyses those official DUO figures; we are not a government body and do not produce these statistics, we only summarise them.

• The B1-route dominates. Among people with a recorded leerroute (learning route), the B1-route is by far the largest group, followed by the Z-route, with the Onderwijsroute a small minority.
• A big slice has no route yet. Roughly a quarter of everyone who entered the Wi2021 system has no learning route recorded, mostly because the personal integration plan (PIP) from the municipality is not yet finalised.
• Asylum-status holders are the largest target group. They make up the majority of total inflow and are far more likely than family migrants to be in the Z-route or Onderwijsroute.
• Most people are still integrating. About four in five obligated newcomers in the dataset still have an active obligation; a minority have already finished.
• These are early cohorts. The 2021 law only started in 2022, so completion figures are low by design — the three-year clock has not run out for most people.

Wet inburgering 2021 (the integration law that started on 1 January 2022) replaced a one-size system with three learning routes. Your municipality (gemeente) decides which route fits you and writes it into your PIP (Persoonlijk plan Inburgering en Participatie), the personal integration and participation plan. In short:

• B1-route: work toward Dutch at level B1, plus knowledge of Dutch society (KNM) and participation modules. The standard route for people who can reasonably reach B1.
• Onderwijsroute (education route): an intensive language-and-study track (taalschakeltraject) aimed at younger newcomers who want to continue into Dutch education.
• Z-route (Zelfredzaamheidsroute, self-reliance route): a participation-focused route for people for whom B1 or study is not realistic, built around hours of language learning and activation rather than high-level exams.

For the rules behind each route, see our guides to the B1-route, the Onderwijsroute, and the Z-route, plus the overview of what changed under Wet inburgering 2021.

The table below shows how people with a recorded learning route are distributed, using DUO data summed across cohorts 2022–2026. Percentages are of the group that already has a route in the system; they exclude the large group whose PIP is not yet finalised, which is covered separately below.

According to DUO, about 112,000 people had a learning route recorded as of June 2026. On top of that, roughly 32,800 people had entered the system but had no route assigned yet — about a quarter of total inflow — mostly because the municipality has not yet finalised their PIP. That "no route yet" group is a useful reminder that the new system is still ramping up.

The route mix looks very different depending on the target group (doelgroep). DUO splits inburgeraars into asylum-status holders, family migrants, and an "other" group. The table below shows the route shares within each group, for people who already have a route, summed across cohorts 2022–2026.

Family migrants are almost entirely in the B1-route, while asylum-status holders — the largest group overall, at roughly 92,000 of about 145,000 total entries — carry nearly all of the Z-route and Onderwijsroute placements. This matches the design of the routes: the Z-route and education route are aimed mainly at newcomers who arrived as refugees.

A cohort is the year in which DUO issued the integration decision (besluit inburgeringsplicht). The table shows total inflow per cohort. The 2026 figure is a partial year, since the dataset only runs to the last complete month before the June 2026 refresh.

Because the 2021 law is young, most people are still on the clock. DUO records each person's status: still obligated, temporarily exempt, finished (afgerond), or lapsed (vervallen). Across all cohorts, roughly 80% are still integrating, about 13% have finished, around 4% have lapsed (for example, left the country or died), and roughly 3% are temporarily exempt. Among those who finished, most met the integration requirement through exams; a smaller share completed via the Z-route, and a few were exempted or released from the obligation.

Read "finished" carefully: it does not mean a fixed pass rate. With the earliest cohorts only three to four years into a three-year clock that can be extended, a low completion share is expected. As the 2022 and 2023 cohorts mature, completion should rise; this is a snapshot, not a final outcome.

Statistics describe the average; your own route is set by your municipality in your PIP, not by these percentages. If most people are in the B1-route, that does not mean you must be. The figures are most useful as context: they show that the B1-route is the default, that the Z-route is a real and common path (not a rare exception), and that the Onderwijsroute is small and mostly for younger asylum newcomers.

To work out which path applies to you, start with which Dutch exam you need, then read the route guide that matches your PIP: the B1-route, Z-route, or Onderwijsroute. For the wider context of the 2021 reform, see what changed under Wet inburgering 2021.