The number of Amsterdam residents who were not born in the Netherlands went up by almost 50,000 to 140,000 between 2013 and 2021, according to new city statistics.

Newcomers now account for 16% of the population, compared with 11% in 2013. The number of Amsterdam-born Amsterdammers has remained virtually unchanged but they now account for 43% of the city’s population, compared with 47% ten years ago.

Long term immigrants account for 18% of the total and the rest – 23% – have moved to the capital from elsewhere in the Netherlands.

In the wider “Amsterdam Metropolitan Region”, which stretches to Lelystad, Zandvoort and Hilversum, some 252,000 newcomers have set up home since 2013.

Indian nationals account for the biggest group of recent new arrivals in the greater Amsterdam region. In 2021, there were 15,000 Indian nationals living in the area for less than 10 years, up from 5,000 in 2013. Polish and British nationals make up the second and third biggest population groups followed by Syrians, Turks and Italians.

The statistics also show that 39% of the foreign-born people in the Amsterdam region live in private rental properties and 31% have bought their own homes. The waiting list for social housing in Amsterdam, for example, is currently well over 10 years and newcomers have no choice other than to rent outside the social sector if they cannot afford to buy.

Almost half the immigrants who moved to the region more than 10 years ago live in social housing and 41% own their own home.

The figures also make it clear that most newcomers move to the city to work rather than to study or because they are seeking asylum. But only a small proportion work in sectors where there is a shortage of workers, such as education and healthcare and a relatively large group work in the information and communication sectors.

And although “expats” are widely considered to be well-paid, “recent immigrants tend to earn less than people who have moved to the region from elsewhere in the Netherlands,” the report said.

Nevertheless, in 2021, the number of Amsterdam residents aged 27 to 64 and earning more than €80,000 reached 53,6000, and nearly 10,000 of them were recent arrivals from another country.