Relatively many employees who live just across the border in Germany or Belgium work in the Netherlands. Conversely, it is a lot less common for people to live in the Netherlands while they have to go to Belgium or Germany for work.
This is evident from the figures published on Thursday by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the statistical offices of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony (both in Germany) and Belgium.
The number of people who live in a neighboring country but work in the Netherlands has been constant since 2017. For example, around 44,000 employees cross the border from Germany to work in the Netherlands, and around 42,000 employees do so from Belgium.
The most popular Dutch region for employees living in Germany is North Limburg. 5 percent of the employees there come from a German state.
At a national level, that percentage is an average of 0.5 percent. In other border regions, such as Twente, the Achterhoek, and Arnhem/Nijmegen, that percentage is logically slightly higher, between 1 and 3 percent.
As for employees from Belgium, it is no surprise that the regions with the most employees from the southern neighboring country are located on the Belgian border. This percentage is particularly high in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen: 4.5 percent of employees in that region come from Belgium.
These numbers are also high in South Limburg, with 4 percent, and South-East North Brabant and Central Limburg with over 2 percent.
Living in the Netherlands and working in Germany or Belgium is less common
The number of employees who live in the Netherlands and work across the border is much smaller: around 8,000 employees go from the Netherlands to Germany (the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony) and 11,000 employees go to Flanders.
The number of employees from the Netherlands in the German region Kreis Städteregion Aachen is the highest at 1 percent (more than two thousand people).
The region with the most employees from the Netherlands on the Flemish side is the Eeklo district, with more than 2 percent. The national average is 0.5 percent.
