What Dutch Level Inburgeraars (People Integrating) Reach: A2, B1, or B2, and How Long It Takes
Official Statistics Netherlands (CBS) figures on the Dutch level reached under the Civic Integration Act 2021 (Wet inburgering 2021): A2, B1, B2, completion time, and the small completed population.
- Author
- By Inburgering.org team (Editorial team)
- Reviewer
- Reviewed by Kirill Svavolia (Editorial review)
- Last updated
If you are integrating under Wet inburgering 2021 (Civic Integration Act 2021), your personal integration and participation plan (PIP) sets the level you need. Use these CBS results to set expectations for common finishing levels and timing. Among the people who have already met their integration obligation (voldaan, met the obligation), about 47% passed all their language exams at B1, while roughly 19% finished at A2 and about 10% reached B2. Read this as an early-cohort snapshot: only about 9,975 people, drawn from the first cohorts, had finished by the end of 2025, while around 85% were still busy.
Direct Answer: What Level Do Inburgeraars Actually Reach?
Among inburgeraars who have met the obligation (voldaan) under Wet inburgering 2021, CBS data through end-2025 shows roughly 47% passed all their language exams at B1, about 19% at A2, and about 10% at B2. A further ~15% were recorded as having passed no language exams or having an unknown level. This category includes routes and exemptions that do not generate an exam-level result, but the data does not show how many people used each route. These figures show the level reached among those who completed, rather than a per-component pass rate. They are also an early snapshot because only about 9,975 people, all from the earliest cohorts, had finished by the end of 2025.
CBS Language-Level Results: Key Points
- B1 is the most common finishing level. Among people who have met the obligation (voldaan), about 47% passed all their language exams at B1.
- A2 and B2 are minorities. Roughly 19% finished with all exams at A2 and about 10% at B2; small shares reached a mix of levels.
- About 15% passed no exams or had an unknown level. Some people meet the obligation through routes that do not produce an exam result.
- About 60% of those who met the obligation took two to three years. Roughly 9 in 10 finished within three years.
- About 8% had finished by the end of 2025. About 85% were still busy (bezig). This is an early-cohort snapshot, not a final completion rate.
What This Data Measures (and What It Does Not)
These figures show the level reached among people who have already completed their integration. No public dataset reports how many people pass the reading, writing, speaking, listening, Knowledge of Dutch Society (KNM), or Orientation on the Dutch Labour Market (ONA) parts. The figures therefore answer which levels finishers reached. They do not report the share that passes each exam part.
This is not a final completion rate. The base is small: only about 9,975 people had met the obligation (voldaan) by the end of 2025, and they come almost entirely from the earliest cohorts. Wet inburgering 2021 started on 1 January 2022, and the standard integration period runs three years. Most people had not yet completed that period. Treat every percentage below as an early snapshot that will shift as later cohorts complete.
Level Reached Among Those Who Finished
The table below shows the language level reached among the roughly 9,975 people who had met the obligation by the end of 2025, summed across all cohorts. "All exams at B1" means every language exam was passed at B1; the mixed categories mean a person passed some exams at one level and some at another. Percentages are of everyone who has met the obligation.
| Language level reached | People (voldaan) | Share of finishers |
|---|---|---|
| All exams at B1 | ~4,665 | ~47% |
| All exams at A2 | ~1,910 | ~19% |
| All exams at B2 | ~1,020 | ~10% |
| Mixed B2 and B1 | ~460 | ~5% |
| Mixed B1 and A2 | ~440 | ~4% |
| No exams passed or unknown | ~1,480 | ~15% |
Adding the categories that include B1 or higher (all-B1, mixed B2/B1, and all-B2), roughly 62% of finishers cleared all their passed exams at B1 or above. The ~15% with no exams passed or an unknown level includes people who complete through routes or exemptions that do not generate an exam-level result.
If the difference between these levels is new to you, our guide to A2 vs B1 levels explains what each level means in practice, and which Dutch exam you need walks through how your required level is set.
How the Level Mix Shifts by Cohort
The level mix is not stable across cohorts. Later cohorts currently include only the people who completed earliest, so their percentages do not describe the eventual level mix for the full cohort. The table below shows the share reaching each "all-exams" level among finishers, by cohort (the year the integration decision was issued).
| Cohort | Finishers | All-B1 | All-A2 | All-B2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ~7,275 | ~41% | ~22% | ~9% |
| 2023 | ~2,235 | ~62% | ~12% | ~14% |
| 2024 | ~410 | ~68% | ~4% | ~20% |
Later cohorts have small bases: around 410 finishers for 2024 and about 25 for 2025. Their percentages are volatile and should be read cautiously. The 2025 cohort is omitted from the table because 25 finishers are too few to report a meaningful mix. B1 is the largest category in every cohort shown.
How Long the Traject Takes
For the people who have met the obligation, CBS also records how long their traject (integration process) took. The standard integration period is three years. About 9 in 10 finishers completed within that period. The table shows the duration among those who have met the obligation.
| Time to meet the obligation | People (voldaan) | Share of finishers |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 2 years | ~3,040 | ~30% |
| 2 to 3 years | ~6,000 | ~60% |
| 3 years or more | ~890 | ~9% |
About 60% of finishers met the obligation in two to three years, and roughly 9 in 10 finished within three years. The table excludes people who were still integrating at the end of 2025. A slower finisher who completes in 2026 or later will appear only in a future update. Among those still busy, about 3% had already been integrating for three years or more by the end of 2025.
How Few Have Finished So Far
The headline level figures rest on a small base, and the status data shows why. At the end of 2025, of about 130,600 people ever obligated under Wet inburgering 2021, only around 8% had met the obligation (voldaan) and about 85% were still busy (bezig). The rest were exempt, temporarily exempt, released from the obligation (ontheven), or no longer obligated.
| Status, end 2025 | Approximate share |
|---|---|
| Still busy (bezig) | ~85% |
| Met the obligation (voldaan) | ~8% |
| Temporarily exempt (tijdelijk vrijgesteld) | ~3% |
| Exempt (vrijgesteld) | ~2% |
| No longer obligated | ~3% |
The voldaan share drops sharply by cohort: about 28% of the 2022 cohort had met the obligation by the end of 2025, against roughly 6% of 2023, around 1% of 2024, and essentially none of 2025. Newer cohorts have had less time to complete their three-year period, so their voldaan shares are lower. These figures cannot measure their eventual completion rates.
Among the people still integrating, about 88% had passed no language exams by the end of 2025. That figure alone does not show whether they had reached the exam stage or attempted an exam.
What This Means If You Are Integrating
Check your personal integration plan (PIP) for your own learning route (leerroute) and required level. The averages here describe finishers. Your PIP sets your target. B1 is common because the B1-route is the default.
To work out your own path, start with which Dutch exam you need, check how routes are assigned in our route-assignment statistics, and if you are aiming for B2, read the Staatsexamen NT2 complete guide.
Official Sources
Official source checked: June 2026.
- CBS Statistiek Wet inburgering (SWI) dashboard - CBS dashboard on the obligated population, learning routes, the personal integration plan (PIP), and exam progress under Wet inburgering 2021. Each chart has a "Download CSV" option; figures cover the period through December 2025 (preliminary) and are rounded to the nearest five.
- Rijksoverheid: Wet inburgering 2021 - Government overview of the 2021 integration law: the three learning routes, the role of municipalities, and the personal integration plan (PIP).
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