The British population in the Netherlands is growing as Brexit looms, with the total number of British nationals living here rising by 1,382 in the first three months of this year, well over double the rise booked a year ago.

The net migration balance among British nationals in the Netherlands shows the biggest increase in the top 10 list of new arrivals, the national statistics office CBS said on Tuesday.

In total, 6,500 more people moved to the Netherlands in the first three months of this year than left. Polish nationals accounted for around 3,000 of the total.

The CBS figures show the number of British nationals moving to the Netherlands has been steadily rising since the Brexit referendum and is now over 7,000 a year.

At the end of 2018, there were 88,390 people with British nationality living in the Netherlands, of whom 49,358 were first generation immigrants, the CBS said. Most of the second generation British nationals had just one British parent.

Taking immigration, emigration, births and deaths into account, the population of the Netherlands grew by some 24,000 in the first three months of 2019.