1.3 million Dutch nationals have two passports

The number of Dutch nationals with two passports reached 1.3 million at the beginning of last year, a rise of 3% on 2013, the national statistics office CBS said on Tuesday.

Almost half of the dual nationals are also Moroccan or Turkish, the CBS said. European Union citizens account for around 280,000, of whom 61,000 are also German and 45,000 also British.

The statistics office said this is the last time that updated official figures over dual nationality will be made available. Changes in government policy mean that since 2014 the population register has only included people who were born in the Netherlands and does not record if they also have a second nationality.

The number of people who took Dutch nationality last year rose to 27,000, above the average of around 20,000 since nationality tests were introduced in 2003. Some 2,600 of them were Moroccan while between 1,000 and 1,500 were Turkish, Iraqi, from the former Soviet Union or Afghan.

The CBS said that research among migrants who came to the Netherlands between 1995 and 2002 found that just 10% of those who came from a relatively stable country applied for Dutch nationality.