How Big Is the International B License Market in the Netherlands?

This report gives a rough but intuitive estimate of how many internationals get their Dutch B driving license each year, and how much money they collectively spend on lessons and exams – compared with Dutch candidates.

The pie chart visualises the estimated annual market size for B licenses: most spending comes from Dutch learners, but internationals still represent a noticeable slice of the market.

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1. Step 1 – Using theory passes to estimate the international share

We start from the theory exams for license B:

• Passed Dutch theory (BTH): 206,584
• Passed English theory (BTH-E): 11,278

Here we make a simple but reasonable assumption:

BTH-E ≈ internationals,
BTH ≈ Dutch candidates

To avoid double-counting people who fail several times, we look only at passed exams, not all attempts.

We then compute the share of English passes in all successful theory exams:

International share
= BTH-E / (BTH + BTH-E)
= 11,278 / (206,584 + 11,278)
≈ 0.0518 → 5.18%

So, roughly 5.2% of all people who eventually pass the B theory test do so in English. This is our proxy for the share of international candidates who successfully complete the theory stage.

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2. Step 2 – Applying that share to practical exam passes

Next, we move to the practical B exam:

• Total passed practical B exams: 108,558

We now assume that the same 5.18% share holds among successful practical candidates. In other words, the proportion of internationals among people who finish the full B license is similar to the proportion we see in passed theory.

Estimated international passes
= 108,558 × 5.18%
≈ 5,620

Estimated Dutch passes
= 108,558 − 5,620
≈ 102,938

Answering the big question:

How many internationals get their Dutch B license each year?
Based on this pass-based proxy, around 5,600 internationals obtain a B license annually, out of roughly 109,000 successful candidates in total.

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3. Step 3 – Converting passes into market size (€)

To translate this into money spent on getting a license, we use a simple, transparent assumption:

Average total cost per B license (lessons + exams) = €2,000
for both Dutch and international candidates.

Multiplying the estimated number of successful candidates by €2,000 gives:

• Dutch students:

  102,938 × €2,000 ≈ €205,876,618
  

• International students:

  5,620 × €2,000 ≈ €11,239,382
  

• Combined B-license market (Dutch + internationals):

  ≈ €217,116,000 per year
  

This is what the pie chart shows: around €206 million in spending from Dutch candidates and about €11 million from international candidates, or roughly a 95% / 5% split in monetary terms.

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4. What does this mean in practice?

• How many internationals get their driver’s license in the Netherlands?
  Our estimate suggests around 5,600 internationals successfully complete the B license each year.

• How much money do internationals spend on driving lessons and exams?
  Using the €2,000-per-license assumption, the international segment represents about €11.2 million in annual spending.

• How big is the overall B-license market?
  For Dutch and international candidates combined, the estimated yearly B license market is around €217 million.

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5. Why this method and what are the limitations?

This approach is deliberately simple and transparent:

1. Use passed theory in Dutch vs English to estimate the share of successful Dutch vs international candidates (avoiding double-counting repeat fails).
2. Apply that share to passed practical exams to approximate how many full-license holders are internationals.
3. Multiply by a single average cost (€2,000) per license to get a market-size estimate.

It does not account for:

• Different average package prices for Dutch vs internationals
• Extra retakes and additional lessons for some candidates
• Regional price differences between driving schools

So the numbers should be seen as a clean, order-of-magnitude estimate, not a precise financial statement. Still, the conclusion is clear:

Internationals are a relatively small but financially meaningful segment of the Dutch driving license market – about 5% of successful B candidates and roughly €11 million in spending per year.