Sanne Bakker

New tenants in Amsterdam paid €28.56 per square metre in the third quarter of 2026, about 37% above the national €20.92, and homes sold for €631k against €480k nationally. Household incomes are not higher than the Dutch average. The figures per borough.

Rotterdam's two partly state-funded international schools have three buildings within 600 m of each other near Centraal, where 21 to 23% of households have children. The family neighbourhoods are in the north, around the private Nord Anglia school in Hillegersberg.

The Dutch rate their lives 7.6 out of 10, above the EU average, and unemployment is among the lowest in Europe. But prices are high and more people report crime nearby than in almost any other EU country. The official figures, measure by measure.

Leiden's two international schools are both primary schools, about 609 m apart in a student town where 19% of nearby households have children. Secondary schools and the family neighbourhoods are in Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp and Voorschoten.

Amsterdam registered 16.0 safety crimes per 1,000 residents in 2025, against 9.5 nationally. Yet about a third of Amsterdammers live in a neighbourhood below the national rate; the peaks are around the Leidseplein and the shopping centres.

Five of Amsterdam's six international schools sit in one strip across the south, but their surroundings differ: 3% houses around the British School, 66% around Amstelland in Amstelveen, and homes at half the price around the Zuidoost campus.

Prices in the Netherlands were about 20% above the EU average in 2025, but the US and the UK were about 19% and 6% more expensive again. Housing is the expensive part; groceries are cheaper than in Germany or Belgium.

On 1 January 2026 Amsterdam had 941,927 residents, Rotterdam 673,804 and The Hague 569,468. The full top 25, which ones are growing, and why some of the largest are not one city.

Rotterdam registered 16.5 safety crimes per 1,000 residents in 2025, against 9.5 nationally, down from 18.3 in 2019. By neighbourhood it runs from 6.9 in Nesselande to over 126 around Zuidplein.

's-Gravenhage, Den Haag and The Hague are the same city. 's-Gravenhage is the formal name in the address register, Den Haag the everyday Dutch name, The Hague the English one. Here is where each comes from.

An average home sold for about €216k less in Rotterdam than in Amsterdam in 2025. Amsterdam households earn more, but a home still costs 10.4 years of income there against 7.8 in Rotterdam.

The average Dutch household had €61.6k to spend after tax in 2024. Amstelveen earns the most of the 17 cities we cover and Groningen the least, while Amsterdam, despite its high salaries, sits below the national average.

Eindhoven's four international school locations sit in very different surroundings. Around SALTO I-St@rt in Meerhoven, 43% of households have children; around ISE's main campus, fewer than 700 people live within 1.5 km.

Rotterdam registers the most safety crimes per resident of the 17 Dutch cities we cover, 16.7 per 1,000 in 2024. Delft and Almere register the fewest, and in every city the centre has the highest rate.

There is no single best place to live in the Netherlands. Of the 17 cities we cover, Almere has the most families, The Hague the most residents born abroad, Delft the fewest safety crimes, and Groningen and Maastricht the cheapest homes.

The priciest district in Amsterdam is 96% flats and two-thirds rented; in Tilburg it is nearly all owner-occupied houses. Wealth looks nothing alike across the country.

In The Hague the average home runs from about 230,000 euro in one district to 939,000 euro in another, a fourfold gap. Your neighbourhood sets the price, not your city.

In Haarlem the supermarket, school, GP and daycare sit a combined 2.1km from the average front door. In the most spread-out district it is seven. The Netherlands' real 15-minute neighbourhoods.

In Amsterdam the average household owns half a car. In the centre of Groningen it is barely a fifth. A map of the country's most, and least, car-free places.

We let our data pick the top neighbourhood for each of six expat types. The winners span Rotterdam, Groningen, Tilburg, Amsterdam and Amstelveen, and only one district takes two.

From 4% to 63%: in some Dutch districts most residents were born abroad, in others almost none. A map of where the international Netherlands actually lives.

Utrecht is the youngest of the 17 cities we cover, with an average age near 37; 's-Hertogenbosch is the oldest at about 42 and a half. The whole spread is only five years.

The Randstad cities are pricier, denser and far more international than the rest. But the gap is smaller than you would think on rent, and the cities outside it are notably older.

The Hague is the most international of the 17 cities we cover, at 39 percent, just ahead of Amsterdam. The surprise in the top three: the suburb of Amstelveen.

Across the 17 cities we cover, the average home sold for about €682k in Amstelveen in 2025 and about €397k in Groningen. Amsterdam is second, and the national average was about €480k.