The people of Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is a small city compared with most national capitals. After World War II the population stood at more than 800,000; it declined until the mid-1980s but has generally risen since then. Recent increases are due to a steady surplus of births over deaths and to an influx of immigrants. About half of the city’s inhabitants are indigenous Dutch; about one-tenth are of Surinamese origin; and there are significant Moroccan and Turkish minorities. Amsterdam has been a home to immigrants since the 16th century. More recently, many have come from the former Dutch empire (Indonesia, Suriname, and the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles). Others have come as “guest workers,” especially from Morocco and Turkey, or as employees of multinational corporations and students from developed countries. Moreover, during the 1990s many new immigrants came as asylum seekers. Non-European minorities now comprise well over one-third of Amsterdam’s population (and about two-thirds of those less than 19 years old), and the city has an active policy of integration, based on language learning and social orientation.
The birth and marriage rates have been rising since the mid-1990s. Meanwhile, as in other Western societies, increasing numbers live alone, in single-parent families, or as unmarried couples. Unlike the population of the Netherlands as a whole, that of Amsterdam has not become older demographically. Pre-retirement-age residents are not a shrinking share of the population, mainly because there is a continual influx of younger people.
The economy
Like most modern cities, Amsterdam is a service centre, with only about one-tenth of its workforce employed in manufacturing. The most vibrant and expanding part of the dominant service sector is its business services component, including consulting, information and medical technology, and telecommunications. The consistent lifeblood of the city for the past seven centuries has been international trade and transport, which together account for about one-fifth of employment. Banking and insurance also have been a mainstay of the Amsterdam economy, together accounting for about one-eighth of all jobs, while about one-sixth of jobholders are employed in health, cultural, and social services. Another important part of the city’s economy, tourism, accounts for about one-tenth of all jobs. However, despite this thriving service sector, at the turn of the 21st century the city had many job seekers who lacked marketable skills, and about one-eighth of the workforce was unemployed.
Finance and trade
Amsterdam is a very popular location for international business, mainly because of its combination of accessibility, cultural richness, cosmopolitan character, and a human scale that results from the absence of high-rise buildings and multilane highways. The Netherlands has attracted no less than one-fifth of all U.S. and Japanese investment in Europe, and much of this is focused on Amsterdam. The city also is a major financial centre, though a less important one than London or Frankfurt. All major Dutch banks have their headquarters in the city, as do the European Options Exchange and the Dutch branch of the Euronext Securities Exchange, and some 60 foreign banks have offices there. The city’s busy port and excellent land and air transportation links have allowed it to maintain its importance as a centre for regional and international trade.
Industry
Industry no longer accounts for a large share of Amsterdam’s economy; however, the industrial activities that continue are varied, ranging from shipbuilding and heavy engineering to petrochemicals, food processing (including brewing), and diamond polishing. Aimed at reducing unemployment, the city’s active economic policy seeks to attract industrial investment by improving infrastructural links with the surrounding region and by providing training, temporary workers, and grants to employers. In the process, the city government created thousands of subsidized jobs toward the end of the 20th century.
Tourism
Tourism of all kinds is a major and growing economic activity. Many visitors to the city come for business purposes or to attend conferences, particularly at the large RAI Exhibition and Congress Centre. Because it is possible to see many of the sites on foot in a single day, day trips to Amsterdam are also extremely popular.
Transportation
Amsterdam commands excellent transport connections via rail, water, road, and air. Schiphol Airport is among the busiest in Europe and indisputably one of the world’s major hub airports. Amsterdam’s seaport also ranks among the most important in Europe, but, overshadowed by the huge Rotterdam-Europoort nearby, the Amsterdam docks underwent a gradual decline in traffic during the late 20th century. An extensive network of superhighways connects Amsterdam with all parts of the Netherlands and with Germany and Belgium. Within the city, since the 1960s, planners have favoured public transportation to reduce automobile use. A high-speed metro line opened in 1976, and a new fast rail link to Schiphol entered service in 1988, but trams remain the principal means of transportation in inner Amsterdam, while buses are important in outer districts.