La population originaire du Surinam et des Antilles néerlandaises aux Pays-Bas, 1971-1986
Authors: Tas Ronald Fredericus Johannes 
Published: October 2008

The population of Surinamese and Antillean origin in the Netherlands, 1971-1986.

Ronald Fredericus Johannes TAS

On January 1st 1986, an estimated 149 000 Surinam-born people were living in the Netherlands. Together with the number of live-born children still present in the Netherlands on January 1st 1986, of women born in Surinam, the population of Surinamese origin can be estimated 188 000.

The number of persons originating from the Netherlands Antillean and living in the Netherlands at the same date amounts to 50 000, ofwhom 41 000 were born in the Netherlands Antilles. This implies that 1.6 % of the total population ofthe Netherlands is of Surinamese or Antillean origin.

The number of live births in the Netherlands by Surinam-born women amounted to 4 200 in 1985, a crude birth rate of 28 per thousand. For the total population of the Netherlands the crude birth rate was 12. However this does not imply that the fertility of Surinam-born women in the Netherlands is more than twice that of all women in the Netherlands, since this difference can largely be accounted for by a difference in the age structure, as shown by the total fertility rate. This rate represents the number of children that would be born per 1 000 women if no mortality were to occur and the age-specific fertility rates of a specifiedfertility table were applicable. Measured in this way, the fertility levels are pretty close. For instance, the total fertility rate for women born in Surinam in the year 1985 is 1,990, just over 30 % higher than the rate for all women in the Netherlands (1,510). In previous years, this margin was even smaller; for 1977 it was only 4 %. In 1985, 800 children were born in the Netherlands of women born in the Netherlandese Antilles, corresponding to a total fertility rate of 1,430 per 1,000 of these women, 5 % lower than the total fertility rate of all women in the Netherlands. Compared to the fertility of Surinam women in the Netherlands, the fertility of the Antillean women was 30 % lower in 1985.

The number of Surinam-born deaths in the Netherlands amounts to 400 in 1985. The age standardized death rate (using the total population ofthe Netherlands as the standard population) is 10.2 per 1 000, 20 % higher than that of the total population of the Netherlands. The age-standardized death rate of people born in the Netherlands: Antillese is 6.1 per thousand, which is 30 % lower than the death rate for the total population of the Netherlands. In 1985, 2 700 Surinam-born people in the Netherlands got married compared with persons born in the Netherlands Antillese. The age standardized marriage rate (Netherlands being the standard population) per 1 000 non-married persons of 15 years or over is 27.7 for Surinam-born people and 17.4 for Netherlands Antillean-born people, in both cases lower (20 % and 50 % respectively) than the marriage rate of the total population of the Netherlands.

As a result ofexternal migration, 3 600 persons born in Surinam settled in the Netherlands in 1985, compared with 3 700 persons born in the Netherlands Antilles.

As a result of nationality changes, 2 900 persons born in Surinam and living in the Netherlands obtained the Dutch nationality in 1985.