> > South Asian Diaspora >> Overseas Indians >> Netherlands
Indians in Netherlands
India has the largest diaspora in the world & as per the Ministry of External Affairs, there are 3.5 Crores or 35 million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) residing outside India.
As per the Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 228,787 (2.28 Lakh) Indians residing in the Netherlands. Out of which around
- Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) – 178,000 (1.78 Lakh)
- Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) – 50,787
read about Population of Overseas Indians
Netherlands Indian population
Indians make up around 1.35% of the Netherlands’ population and the approximate population of Indians in the Netherlands as of 2026 is 2.30 Lakh. The majority of the people of Indian descent in the Netherlands are of Indo-Surinamese origin and the approximate population is 2 Lakhs the rest 50 thousand are Indian Expats or NRIs.
Indians began migrating to Suriname in 1873 as indentured laborers, mostly from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and the surrounding regions. Up until the independence of Suriname in 1975, all the Indo-Surinamese were formally part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and thus owned a Dutch passport. After the independence, a significant portion of the Indo-Surinamese population migrated to the Netherlands.
Indian Expats have recently immigrated especially information technology professionals. As of 2019, about 48,724 people of Indian immigrant descent lived in the Netherlands. Most of them live in the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and North Brabant.
Source: MEA report about overseas Indian population.
Religion of Indian population in Netherlands
Hinduism is the majority religion followed by the Indian Population in the Netherlands followed by Sikhism, Islam & Christianity.
read about Religion in Netherlands