We're sure that you must have been on Texel at some point in your life. But what do you actually know about Texel? The most important interesting facts about Texel follow below.

Interesting facts about Texel

Texel is the biggest of the Netherlands' Wadden islands and attracts more than one million visitors every year. There's lot to tell you about Texel and you will find hundreds of pages of interesting information on our website. A number of handy interesting facts follow below.

General information about Texel

• Texel is very easy to get to: it's just 60 minutes from Amsterdam and 20 minutes on the ferry
• Number of residents: 13,687 (2022)
• City rights: since 1415
• Number of sheep: about 14,000
• Number of lambs in the spring: about 22,000
• Surface area of the municipality of Texel: 58,041 hectares
• Land surface area: 16,000 hectares
  
• Texel's length: 25 km
• Texel's width: 8 km
• Cycle path network: 140 km
• Footpath network: 225 km outside the nesting season and 140 km in the nesting season.
• Length of the beach: 30 km
• Surface area covered by nature reserves: 5,300 hectares (the National Park covers about 4,200 hectares. Beyond this park, the national forest service in the Netherlands (Staatsbosbeheer) and the Society for the Preservation of Nature in the Netherlands (Natuurmonumenten) manage other nature reserves too)
• Number of villages: 7
• Number of museums: 8
• Lighthouse: 118 steps
• Texel airport: since 1937.2 (grass) runways: runway 04-22 approximately 1,115 m and runway 13-31 of 630 m
• A whole range of different types of accommodation: hotels, B&Bs, holiday homes, group homes, apartments, villas, country houses, (farm) campsites, chalets, fully-furnished tents and yurts (Mongolian nomad tents).

Tourism

• Total number of visitors 2020: 667,560 (based on TESO transport figures)
• Total number of day visitors 2020: 178,930 (based on TESO transport figures)
• Gross domestic product for Texel: tourism / hoceca 350, retail 255, fishing 19, agriculture 49, miscellaneous 44 and total: 717 (2020)
• Repeat visits 88% (Texel Monitor 2023)
• The most important reasons for visiting the island: beach visit, walking, cycling, nature, viewing villages, peace, space, relaxing (Texel Monitor 2020)
• Origin: 56.76% from the Netherlands, 38.76% from Germany, 3.02% from Belgium and 1.46% from elsewhere (2023)
• Average tourist age: 50 years
• Group size (tourist): 2.86 (of all bookings 2020)
• Education (tourist): 23% MBO (senior secondary vocational education), 33% HBO (Bachelor degree education)/VWO (pre-university education), 15% WO (university)