Who Does Inburgering in the Netherlands? A Demographic Profile Under Wet Inburgering 2021

Roughly 130,595 people took on a civic-integration obligation (inburgeringsplicht) under Wet inburgering 2021 across the 2022-2025 cohorts, and about two in three of them, around 65%, arrived as asylum migrants (asielmigranten) rather than through family or other routes. According to CBS Statistiek Wet inburgering (SWI), this group is young, almost exactly split between men and women, and dominated by one nationality. This page analyses those official CBS figures; we are not a government body and do not produce these statistics, we only summarise them.

• About 130,595 people in total. That is everyone who took on a civic-integration obligation under Wet inburgering 2021 across the 2022-2025 cohorts.
• Roughly two-thirds arrived through asylum. Asylum migrants (asielmigranten), including family members of asylum migrants, make up about 65% of the population; family and other migrants make up about 35%.
• Syrians dominate the asylum group. Among asylum migrants, Syrian nationals are about 52% of the total, far ahead of any other nationality.
• It is a young population. About 64% are under 35, and the single largest age band is 25-29.
• An even gender split. Across all cohorts, men and women each make up about half.
• Foreign qualifications can be high. Of those who had a foreign diploma formally valued, about 51% reached bachelor level or equivalent and about 24% reached havo/vwo (Dutch upper-secondary) level.

The civic-integration obligation, inburgeringsplicht, is the legal duty for certain newcomers from outside the EU to learn Dutch and about Dutch society. The CBS Statistiek Wet inburgering (SWI) population covers everyone who became inburgeringsplichtig under Wet inburgering 2021, the integration law that started on 1 January 2022. CBS splits this population into two target groups (doelgroepen): asylum migrants (asielmigranten), which also includes people who reunited with or formed a family with an asylum migrant, and gezins- & overige migranten, meaning family and other migrants. The tables below use that same split.

For the legal definition of who falls under the obligation in the first place, see our guide to who must integrate, and for the wider context of the system, see what inburgering is in the Netherlands.

The clearest dividing line in this population is the target group (doelgroep). The table below shows the asylum vs family-and-other split across all four cohorts combined, using the CBS "Populatie inburgeringsplichtigen" figures. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5.

The population also grew over the early cohorts. The cohort that started in 2022 was about 25,795 people; by 2024 it had grown to about 36,050, an increase of roughly 40%. The 2025 cohort was about 33,275. The asylum share varies year to year, from about 72% of the 2022 cohort down to about 59% of the 2025 cohort.

CBS publishes a top-10 nationality breakdown for the asylum-migrant group only; there is no equivalent published breakdown for family and other migrants here, so these figures describe asylum migrants, not the whole population. The table below shows the share of asylum migrants by nationality, summed across the 2022-2025 cohorts. These are descriptive counts only.

Syrian nationals are by far the largest single group, at about 52% of all asylum migrants in the population. After that, the distribution flattens quickly: Turkish, Eritrean, and Yemeni nationals each sit at around 7%, and Afghan nationals at about 4%. We report these figures as published and draw no conclusions from them beyond the counts themselves.

Across all cohorts and target groups, the population is split almost exactly in half by sex, about 50% men and 50% women, and it skews young. The table below shows the age distribution at the start of the obligation.

About 64% of the population is under 35 at the start of the obligation, and the single largest five-year band is 25-29, at roughly 19%. This youthful profile is part of why the education-focused Onderwijsroute exists at all, even though it is a small route in practice.

Two separate CBS figures speak to education, and they measure different things. The first is the highest education level a person actually followed inside the Netherlands before their obligation started; this applies only to the roughly 17,050 people who had Dutch schooling on record, a small subgroup of the whole population, not everyone. Among that subgroup, about 41% had been in middelbaar beroepsonderwijs (Dutch vocational secondary education, MBO) and about 39% in voortgezet onderwijs (Dutch secondary school).

The second, and more revealing, figure is the internationale diplomawaardering, the formal valuation of a foreign diploma against the Dutch education system. The table below shows how the roughly 14,600 people who had a foreign diploma valued were distributed across levels.

Among people who had a foreign diploma formally valued, about 51% were valued at bachelor level (ho/wo) and another roughly 24% at havo/vwo, the Dutch upper-secondary level. Counting bachelor, master, and PhD together, about 62% of this group held a qualification valued at bachelor level or higher. Two cautions: this covers only the roughly 14,600 people who actually had a diploma valued, not the full population, and a valuation reflects the level of a qualification, not whether it leads directly to comparable work in the Netherlands.

These are population averages, not a description of you. Your own target group, route, and obligation are set by your municipality (gemeente) in your personal integration plan (PIP), not by these percentages. The figures are most useful as context: they show that the inburgering population is largely young, evenly split by sex, mostly arriving through asylum, and more educated on paper than is often assumed, with a majority of valued foreign diplomas sitting at bachelor level or above.

To see how this population is sorted into the three learning routes, read our analysis of how inburgeraars are assigned to routes, and for outcomes, the figures on the language levels people actually achieve. To check whether the obligation applies to you, start with who must integrate.