If you move to Amsterdam with children, the school place is often the first thing that is fixed, and the home follows. Five of the six international schools we looked at sit in one strip across the south of Amsterdam and Amstelveen, but the streets around them are very different. Within 2 km of the British School of Amsterdam, 3 percent of homes are houses; around Amstelland International School in Amstelveen it is 66 percent, and 42 percent of households have children.
Six international schools, and what lies within 2 km
The list comes from the map of Dutch International Schools, the network of partly state-funded international schools, which also lists the International School of Amsterdam as an associated member. We added the British School of Amsterdam and Amity, which are not on that map. Each address and description was checked on the school's own website in October 2026. For every location we took the neighbourhoods whose centre lies within 2 km in a straight line and added up their official open data for 2025.
| School | Municipality | Residents within 2 km | Households with children | Single-family houses | Average home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AICS South Campus | Amsterdam | 57,900 | 21% | 11% | €636k |
| British School of Amsterdam | Amsterdam | 121,000 | 20% | 3% | €650k |
| Amity International School | Amstelveen | 41,800 | 30% | 44% | €632k |
| International School of Amsterdam | Amstelveen | 45,200 | 32% | 40% | €500k |
| Amstelland International School | Amstelveen | 23,100 | 42% | 66% | €593k |
| AICS Sandcastle | Amsterdam | 61,400 | 23% | 14% | €301k |
The Amsterdam International Community School (AICS) and Amstelland International School belong to that network, whose schools the Dutch government partly funds. The International School of Amsterdam is an independent non-profit, and the British School of Amsterdam and Amity are outside the network. Admission rules, waiting lists and fees differ a lot, so check them with the school before you shortlist a neighbourhood.
Two Dutch schools with an international stream also appear on the network's map: Alasca, a havo and vwo school that offers the IB Diploma, and Denise, a bilingual school for ages 4 to 18. They follow the Dutch system and are not in the table. Schools that teach another country's national curriculum are not covered here either.
Five of the six sit in the south, close to each other
AICS's South Campus is about 2.1 km from the British School and 2.4 km from Amity, and the International School of Amsterdam is under 3 km from both Amity and Amstelland. Only AICS's Sandcastle campus in Zuidoost stands apart, at least 6 km from every other school on the list.
That makes the south the place to look if you are not sure yet which school it will be, or if children go to different schools. 20 neighbourhoods with at least 1,000 residents lie within 2 km of two of the schools. In Amsterdam they are mostly flats; in Amstelveen several are family areas, which the next section looks at.
Amstelveen has the family streets
Around Amstelland International School, 42 percent of households have children and 66 percent of homes are single-family houses, at an average of about €593k. The school's own neighbourhood, Kastelenbuurt, reaches 61 percent families. Across Amstelveen as a whole the share is 33 percent, against 23 percent in Amsterdam.
Several Amstelveen neighbourhoods are within 2 km of two schools and are mostly houses: Kastanjebuurt (42 percent families), Van der Leekbuurt (40), Beroepenbuurt (40) and Bovenkerk (41). Randwijck West, between AICS South and Amity, has the highest share of all, 49 percent, with homes averaging about €866k.
Near the city schools, almost every home is a flat
The British School of Amsterdam sits in the Schinkelbuurt in Amsterdam-Zuid. About 121,000 people live within 2 km, more than around any other school on the list, but only 3 percent of the homes are houses and 20 percent of households have children. Around AICS South it is similar: 11 percent houses and 21 percent families.
These are also the most expensive circles, at about €650k and €636k on average. Within them the range is wide: Minervabuurt-Midden averages about €1.18 million, Schinkelbuurt-Zuid about €503k.
Around the Zuidoost campus, homes cost half as much
AICS's Sandcastle campus at the Bijlmerplein has about 61,000 residents within 2 km, and homes there average about €301k, less than half of the €636k around the school's South Campus. 23 percent of households have children.
The neighbourhoods with the most families nearby are K-buurt-Zuidwest (44 percent), Kelbergen (41) and E-buurt (41). For a family with a place at the Sandcastle campus, Zuidoost is the most affordable way to live near the school.
What a distance on the map does and does not tell you
All distances are in a straight line from the school to the centre of each neighbourhood, and the route by bike or public transport can be longer. The neighbourhood figures come from Statistics Netherlands' 2025 key figures and describe everyone who lives there, not only international families.
Use the schools to draw the circle and the neighbourhood figures to choose inside it. You can compare every neighbourhood on the figures that matter to you in the explorer, open the Amsterdam or Amstelveen page, browse other cities, read our story on international schools in Eindhoven, or see how the figures are built on our data sources page.