VOORBURG, 07/02/04 - The Netherlands had 16.3 million inhabitants on 1 January. The population increased by 62,400 last year, the lowest growth since 1984, figures published by the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) on Friday show.

The population growth rate has halved over the last three years. In 2000, the number of inhabitants increased by 123,100. The limited growth in 2003 is the result of increased emigration and less immigration.

More and more people are choosing to leave the Netherlands. Last year, 103,800 people emigrated, the highest figure ever. At the same time, the number of immigrants was 106,500, a drop of 14,800 on the previous year's figure. In particular, fewer people came into the country from Angola, the Netherlands Antilles and Sierra Leone.

The natural population growth remained unchanged. The number of births was 201,000, and 141,100 people died. In both cases, this was a drop of about a thousand compared to 2002.