"Nijmegen tugged at my heartstring"
Ms. Laurena Lau from Singapore works for NXP and lives in Nijmegen

Nijmegen has 160.000 inhabitants. Here are some facts on what they are like. In 2007, the municipality conducted a survey amongst 171 expats living in Nijmegen. On the next page you will find an impression of their experiences in social conduct in personal and work situations.

Facts & figures
Most of them (about 120,000) are from Dutch origin. Overall, the other 40,000 people can be divided in groups of thousands originating from Turkey, Marocco, the Antillies and Aruba, Surinam, Indonesia, former Republic of Yugoslavia, Germany and Belgium, and smaller groups of hundreds of people from Greece, Spain, Vietnam, Irak, Somalia, Iran, Irak, Italy, China/Hongkong, Great Britain, France and Ethiopia.

Most striking aspects of the 112,000 working inhabitants of Nijmegen, is the relatively high educationlevel, high percentage of parttime workers and the strong emphasis on education, government and health in the economy. The unemployment rate is about 7 % (numbers based on 2004). The average household income in 2003 was € 26,000.

In the Netherlands people are allowed to vote from the age of 18. In the last city council elections of 2006, 58% placed their votes; the majority -24 out of 39- voted left wing (Partij van de Arbeid, SP, GroenLinks).

Emancipation of homosexuals is very important for Nijmegen. The city is proud to be known as a tolerant and 'pink' city amongst gay men, women and bisexual people.

Looking for other facts and figures on Nijmegen?
The municipal department of Research and Statistics will be glad to help you. Please send an e-mail to onderzoek.statistiek@nijmegen.nl.