After seven years of constant increase of Dutch people emigrating, the Central Bureau of Statistics notes that this trend has come to an end as it seems like the numbers are declining:

Looking closer at the emigration statistics it looks like most Dutch stay relatively close to home with Australia on the 8th position:

According to these statistics over 2000 people emigrated to Australia. In contrast, the statistics of Australian immigration show a number of only 548 Dutch immigrating to Australia (on a total of 140.148 !) during the 2006/2007 financial year, of which 364 entered using a Skilled visa (the same as I have).

Perhaps the difference in numbers is due to the fact that Dutch people leaving The Netherlands longer than 8 months are regarded upon as emigrants, while in fact they may just be traveling for a couple of months. If this is all true, this means that there are about 1500 backpackers in Australia?