The Netherlands has around 36,000 homeless people, of whom around 8,500 are under the age of 27, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

Their number has stabilized following years of steady increases, and there are fewer young homeless people in particular, the CBS said.

Some 84% of people without a permanent roof over their heads are male but around a quarter of the under 27s are female.

Over a third of the homeless live in the big four cities of Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam. Around half have an ethnic minority background, and around 10% are ‘western’ immigrants.

In 2019, the national ombudsman, the children’s ombudsman and the Salvation Army wrote to the government urging officials to take action to curb homelessness.