In 2006, some 650 thousand people moved to another municipality. Most of them did not leave their province of residence. Fewer people move from one province to another.
One in seven, approximately 90 thousand people, moved to one of the four largest municipalities in the Netherlands, i.e. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague or Utrecht. Relatively speaking, the four largest municipalities were the most popular destination for residents of the province of Utrecht: nearly 13 thousand people (1.1 percent of the total population of the province of Utrecht) settled in one of the four largest municipalities. Residents of the provinces of Drenthe (0.16 percent), Friesland (0.20 percent) and Limburg (0.21 percent) were least likely to settle in one of the four largest municipalities.
There is a distinct relation with the distance between the municipality in which people live prior to moving elsewhere and the four largest municipalities: in many peripheral provinces (Drenthe, Friesland, Limburg, but also Overijssel and North Brabant) moving from one province to another is relatively rare.
Amsterdam and Utrecht attract most people from other provinces: approximately one in three people who settle in these two cities come from the provinces of North Holland and Utrecht, two in three come from other provinces. The ratios are the other way round for Rotterdam and The Hague.
Province of origin of people who move to the big cities