The population of the Netherlands grew by 28,700 in the first six months of this year but the number of people leaving the country also rose, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Some 58,000 people left the Netherlands during the first six months of the year, an increase of 5,000 on the same period in 2010. Many of the emigrants were born in the Netherlands.
By contrast, 66,600 newcomers arrived here, most of whom came from other EU countries. But this was only an increase of 2,000 on the previous year, the CBS said.
There were 88,500 live births in the first half, and 68,000 people died.
The growth in the population is ‘considerable,’ CBS demographics expert Jan Latten told the Financieele Dagblad. ‘All the news stories about depopulation give the impression the population is shrinking, but that is not the case’.