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InburgeringPrep
4 min readUpdated 12 October 2026Official sources for this topic · how we write

Learning route by municipality: what the 25 largest gemeenten assign

It varies by municipality. In Amsterdam, the gemeente with the most newcomers, 85.0% of people with a learning route are in the B1 route; nationally it is 70.2% and in Tilburg 59.1%. Tilburg assigns the Z-route most often, at 36.2%. Source: DUO open data, October 2026.

In Amsterdam, the municipality with the most newcomers under the Wet inburgering 2021 (12,593), 85.0% of the people with a learning route are in the B1 route. Nationally it is 70.2%. Across the 25 largest municipalities the B1 share runs from 85.0% (Amsterdam) to 59.1% (Tilburg); Tilburg assigns the Z-route most often, at 36.2%.

Contents · 4 sections
  1. 01Learning route in the 25 largest municipalities (all cohorts)
  2. 02People included in these figures
  3. 03What this means for your exam
  4. 04More inburgering statistics

Learning route in the 25 largest municipalities (all cohorts)

MunicipalityB1-routeEducation routeZ-route (self-reliance)No route yetTotalShare B1 routeWithheld cells
Amsterdam8,0734261,0003,09412,59385.0%71
Rotterdam4,4621651,1051,6977,42977.8%80
's-Gravenhage3,9241701,0521,8907,03676.3%65
Utrecht2,6012066084933,90876.2%87
Almere1,713503686512,78280.4%86
Eindhoven1,791574813422,67176.9%79
Groningen1,258824062922,03872.1%74
Tilburg815644992831,66159.1%92
Arnhem1,094932931941,67473.9%75
Nijmegen778813753211,55563.0%82
Haarlem974691293541,52683.1%68
Breda882783831681,51165.7%77
Zaanstad1,001203041961,52175.5%66
Enschede948682971081,42172.2%72
Amersfoort83602432551,33477.5%73
Haarlemmermeer782481782831,29177.6%67
's-Hertogenbosch81846359831,30666.9%63
Apeldoorn723623301081,22364.8%65
Leiden818191891451,17179.7%75
Leeuwarden673681961151,05271.8%70
Zoetermeer551191912651,02672.4%77
Zwolle63676231791,02267.4%71
Delft747221486798481.5%77
Maastricht591011029399484.3%59
Dordrecht5124021919997066.4%62
Netherlands (all municipalities)86,4497,01129,61430,855153,92970.2%53

People included in these figures

  • Everyone who received a decision from DUO that they are obliged to integrate under the Wet inburgering 2021. The cohort is the year of that decision, not the year of arrival.
  • People under the old Wet inburgering 2013 are not included; that law has no learning routes.
  • DUO withholds cells of 1 to 4 people. The figures on this page are built from rows with 1,833 such cells, so the totals are a lower bound.
  • Source: DUO open onderwijsdata, WI 2021 Instroom, Uitstroom en Leerroute (updated October 2026). The dataset is refreshed monthly and runs to the end of the last full month.
  • The withheld-cells column counts how many DUO cells of 1 to 4 people are missing from that row. The true row total is at most four times that number higher, so a 0 with withheld cells means at most a handful of people, not nobody.
  • The table shows the 25 municipalities with the most newcomers; the Netherlands row counts every municipality and comes from DUO's national table. People without a municipality (non-residents register, unknown) appear only in that national row.
  • The route is the one in the current PIP. Someone scaled down from B1 to A2 stays in the B1 route; scaling down is not a separate route.

Data last updated: October 2026.

What this means for your exam

The municipality picks the route after the brede intake and the learnability test. What the routes are is explained in the Civic Integration Act 2021; the exams the B1 route ends in are on the inburgering exam; whether the duty applies to you is on who must do inburgering.

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Frequently asked questions
Which municipality has the most newcomers?

Amsterdam, with 12,593 people who received an inburgering decision since 2022. Next come Rotterdam (7,429) and 's-Gravenhage (7,036).

Where is the Z-route assigned most often?

Of the 25 largest municipalities, in Tilburg: 36.2% of newcomers with a route. Nationally it is 24.1%.

Can I choose my own learning route?

No. The municipality sets the route in your PIP on the basis of the brede intake and the learnability test. You can object to the decision, and in the B1 route you can later scale down to A2 per exam part.

Official sources
  1. DUO inburgeren.nl: In het kort - U gaat inburgeren (opens in a new tab)
    inburgeren.nl · external site

    DUO: the inburgering duty, the 3-year term and extensions

  2. DUO inburgeren.nl (opens in a new tab)
    inburgeren.nl · external site

    DUO's official inburgering site — registration, deadlines, and your personal status

  3. DUO inburgeren.nl: Oefenen - Examen doen (opens in a new tab)
    inburgeren.nl · external site

    DUO's own free practice material for the inburgeringsexamen

  4. DUO inburgeren.nl: Welke examens - Examen doen (opens in a new tab)
    inburgeren.nl · external site

    DUO's overview of the inburgeringsexamen parts and how to book them

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