Abstract Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a rare but disabling disorder that often requires long‐term immunomodulatory treatment. Background incidence rates and prevalence and risk factors for developing CIDP are still poorly defined. In the current study, we used a longitudinal population‐based cohort study in The Netherlands to assess these rates and demographic factors and comorbidity associated with CIDP. We determined the incidence rate and prevalence of CIDP between 2008 and 2017 and the occurrence of potential risk factors in a retrospective Dutch cohort study using the Integrated Primary Care Information (IPCI) database. Cases were defined as CIDP if the diagnosis of CIDP was described in the electronic medical file. In a source population of 928 030 persons with a contributing follow‐up of 3 525 686 person‐years, we identified 65 patients diagnosed with CIDP. The overall incidence rate was 0.68 per 100 000 person‐years (95% CI 0.45‐0.99). The overall prevalence was 7.00 per 100 000 individuals (95% CI 5.41‐8.93). The overall incidence rate was higher in men compared to woman (IRR 3.00, 95% CI 1.27‐7.11), and higher in elderly of 50 years or older compared with people <50 years of age (IRR 17 95% CI 4‐73). Twenty percent of CIDP cases had DM and 9% a co‐existing other auto‐immune disease. These background rates are important to monitor changes in the frequency of CIDP following infectious disease outbreaks, identify potential risk factors, and to estimate the social and economic burden of CIDP.