More than 86 thousand people worked in the Netherlands as employees in 2021, while living in Germany or Belgium. Conversely, the numbers who lived in the Netherlands and worked in neighboring countries are much lower. North, South Limburg and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen are the Dutch regions with the highest percentage of employees living in Germany or Belgium. This is evident from new figures from Statistics Netherlands and the statistical offices of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Belgium.
Nearly 44 thousand employees crossed the border from Germany for their work in the Netherlands, and 42 thousand from Belgium. These numbers have remained virtually constant since 2017.
Fewer employees commute from the Netherlands
The number of employees who came to the Netherlands from Belgium and Germany to work in 2021 was much larger than the number who commuted in the opposite direction. Nearly 7 thousand employees from the Netherlands worked in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, 1 thousand in Lower Saxony and 11 thousand in Flanders. Very few people from the Netherlands work in Wallonia. The number of cross-border commuters from the Netherlands to Belgium has fallen slightly since 2017.
North Limburg has the largest share of employees from Germany
In North Limburg, more than 5 percent of employees came from Germany in 2021. That is considerably higher than the national average of 0.5 percent. In Twente, Achterhoek, Arnhem/Nijmegen, Central and South Limburg, the percentages in 2021 were between 1 and 3.
In the German regions on the other side of the border, the shares of employees from the Netherlands are lower. This share is the highest for the Kreis Städteregion Aachen at 1 percent. Because many people work in this region, in absolute terms this amounts to more than 2 thousand people. That is 30 percent of all incoming cross-border commuters to North Rhine-Westphalia.
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen has the highest share of employees from Belgium
In 2021, 4.5 percent of employees in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen lived in Belgium. Other regions with relatively high shares of employees from Belgium are South Limburg (4.0 percent), Southeast North Brabant and Central Limburg (just over 2 percent). On the Flemish side, the Eeklo district also shows a share of above 2 percent of employees who work in that region and live in the Netherlands. This is more than the average of 0.5 percent.
The Antwerp district has a relatively large share of employees from the Netherlands, at just under 1 percent. Because many people work in this region, this amounts to 3.6 thousand people in absolute terms. That is almost a third of all cross-border commuters from the Netherlands to Flanders.
Source: CBS
