Picture an international Dutch city and Amsterdam comes to mind first. The data nudges a few kilometres up the coast. The most international of the 17 cities we cover is The Hague, where 39 percent of residents have a migration background, just ahead of Amsterdam at 38 percent and Amstelveen at 37 percent. At the other end, 's-Hertogenbosch is the least international at 14 percent, a gap of 25 points.
The full ranking, most to least international
This is the share of residents with a migration background, the standard measure used by Statistics Netherlands. It counts anyone with at least one parent born abroad.
| City | Migration background |
|---|---|
| The Hague | 39% |
| Amsterdam | 38% |
| Amstelveen | 37% |
| Rotterdam | 34% |
| Eindhoven | 31% |
| Delft | 29% |
| Almere | 28% |
| Maastricht | 28% |
| Utrecht | 24% |
| Leiden | 24% |
| Haarlem | 22% |
| Arnhem | 22% |
| Tilburg | 21% |
| Groningen | 20% |
| Nijmegen | 17% |
| Breda | 16% |
| 's-Hertogenbosch | 14% |
The spread is steep for a compact country. The top four cities all clear 34 percent, while the bottom three sit below 18 percent, so a move of a hundred kilometres can roughly halve how international your surroundings feel.
Why The Hague edges out Amsterdam
The Hague reaches 39 percent for a structural reason rather than a fashionable one. It is the seat of government and home to embassies, international courts and organisations, which anchors a large international workforce and the schools and services that follow it. That gives it an international base that is built into the institutions, not dependent on a single trend.
Amsterdam, at 38 percent, is a fraction behind and remains the city most newcomers picture first. The two have been close for years, so the headline is less that The Hague is unusual and more that the capital does not have the lead many assume.
A suburb in the top three
The real surprise is third place. Amstelveen, a town rather than a major city, reaches 37 percent, ahead of Rotterdam at 34 percent. It has a long-established international community, corporate relocation from the Amsterdam area, and international schooling, which together keep its share close to the two big cities despite its size.
It also shows that being international does not require scale. Amstelveen has well under 100,000 residents, a fraction of Rotterdam's size, yet a higher share of them have a migration background. For a household that wants an international setting without a big-city one, that combination is rare.
Where the Netherlands is least international
The bottom of the table is concentrated in the south and east. 's-Hertogenbosch at 14 percent, Breda at 16 percent and Nijmegen at 17 percent are the least international, more homogeneous places with fewer international employers and institutions. The distance from The Hague is about 25 points, which is a large spread for a country this compact.
That does not make these cities closed, but it shapes daily life. With international residents below one in five, English is less of a default in shops and services, and international schools and communities are thinner than in the Randstad. For some movers that is a drawback, for others a reason to integrate faster.
What international does and does not mean here
A high figure signals a diverse, outward-looking city, but it is not the same as an expat bubble. Migration background includes long-settled communities, European and non-European, not only recent arrivals from English-speaking countries. Maastricht is a useful example: at 28 percent it ranks mid-table, but much of that is its international university and the Belgian and German borders rather than a Randstad-style expat scene.
Use the figure to gauge how cosmopolitan daily life is likely to feel, then look at the city itself. You can compare every city in the explorer or open a city for the detail, and all figures come from the public sources on our data sources page.