Table 1.

Characteristics of the sample by immigrant group; the Netherlands, 2005/2006

	Dutch	Labour immigrants	Immigrants from former colonies	p
N	2,735	99	148
Age in years (mean, SD)	30.56 (6.20)	30.44 (5.72)	30.29 (6.51)	0.87#
Sex (% female)	51.9	40.4	54.1	0.09$
Education level (% high)a	31.0	37.0	50.0	<0.001$

p p value for differences between groups, SD standard deviation, ns not statistically significant

^# F test

^$Chi-square test

^aHigh education level is: completion or current education at the level of first or second stage of tertiary education (levels 5–6 of the International Standard Classification of Education)