Leaving home? Women move to Maastricht, men to Delft

Nearly 32,000 young people moved from their parents’ home to a university city last year, Statistics Netherlands (or CBS) reports. Relatively, Maastricht attracted women the most, while Delft attracted the most men. In Rotterdam, the balance is fairly even.

The CBS investigated how many young people aged 17 to 22 move to a city with a university. There will undoubtedly be exceptions, but CBS believes that the vast majority will be students.

From 2015 through 2021, around 36,000 young people a year moved from their parents’ home to a university city. By now, that figure has fallen by 4,000. This is likely related to the housing shortage and rising rents, says CBS expert Tanja Traag.

In recent years, students have been more likely to continue living with their parents. “Most eventually do move out during their studies”, says Traag. “They just tend to do so in their second or third year nowadays.”

Rotterdam’s students come from all over the country, but mainly from South Holland. Excluding Rotterdam, students most often come from The Hague and, surprisingly, from Goirle in third place (2.1 per cent).

Twelve cities

Of the twelve university cities, Amsterdam and Groningen were the most attractive. In the peak year of 2023, when the basic grant was reintroduced, Groningen was the city that attracted the most young people. In other years, Amsterdam was the most popular.

More men than women move to cities with a university of technology – Delft, Enschede and Eindhoven. In the other university cities, more women move in, especially in Maastricht and Nijmegen.

The statisticians also mapped where the young people moving to each city came from. Most cities mainly attract young people from their own region. Groningen attracts few young people from Limburg, while conversely, few young people from the north of the country travel to Maastricht. And in both regions, few young people leave home to live in Amsterdam.

There are exceptions, however. Located in the centre of the country, Utrecht attracts young people from all directions, while students moving to Enschede also come from all over the country. Wageningen tops the list: for that city, the distance from the parental home appears to make little difference.

Other cities where people can study, such as those with a large university of applied sciences, were not included in this CBS study. International students were also excluded.