In 2024 Rotterdam registered more safety crimes per resident than any of the 17 Dutch cities we cover. Whether it is safe to live in, though, is not a city question. The honest answer is that it depends on the neighbourhood far more than on the city. In 2025 the rate ran from 6.9 per 1,000 residents in Nesselande to 126.2 around Zuidplein, and the city as a whole is safer than it was in 2019.
Rotterdam's rate, and how it has changed since 2019
We count the offences that shape how safe a street feels: burglary, violence and threats, vandalism and drug nuisance, as registered by the police, per 1,000 residents. Bicycle theft, pickpocketing and shoplifting are left out. The figures come from official open data.
| Year | Rotterdam | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 18.3 | 11.4 |
| 2020 | 17.9 | 10.6 |
| 2021 | 16.5 | 9.5 |
| 2022 | 16.7 | 9.6 |
| 2023 | 16.3 | 9.2 |
| 2024 | 16.7 | 9.4 |
| 2025 | 16.5 | 9.5 |
Rotterdam's rate fell by about 10 percent between 2019 and 2025. The national rate fell faster, by about 16 percent, so the gap with the rest of the country has not closed. In 2025 Rotterdam registered 16.5 per 1,000 against 9.5 nationally. Our comparison of 17 Dutch cities has the other cities side by side.
District by district
Rotterdam's districts are large; Prins Alexander, the biggest, has about 98,000 residents. That is why the table also shows the range of the neighbourhoods inside each district, counting only neighbourhoods with at least 1,000 residents.
| District | Residents | Per 1,000, 2025 | Neighbourhoods range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pernis | 4,900 | 7.0 | 7.0 to 7.0 |
| Rozenburg | 12,600 | 8.6 | 8.6 to 8.6 |
| Prins Alexander | 97,800 | 10.9 | 6.9 to 16.6 |
| Hoogvliet | 36,800 | 11.7 | 10.8 to 12.2 |
| Overschie | 21,200 | 12.6 | 11.7 to 12.8 |
| Hillegersberg-Schiebroek | 44,800 | 13.0 | 8.4 to 18.0 |
| Hoek van Holland | 10,500 | 13.3 | 12.4 to 13.5 |
| Kralingen-Crooswijk | 54,800 | 15.4 | 9.4 to 20.5 |
| IJsselmonde | 63,500 | 15.5 | 13.4 to 17.1 |
| Feijenoord | 81,500 | 15.5 | 8.9 to 32.0 |
| Noord | 52,000 | 16.9 | 11.6 to 29.1 |
| Delfshaven | 76,600 | 17.5 | 11.5 to 21.1 |
| Charlois | 70,900 | 18.6 | 10.3 to 126.2 |
| Nieuw Mathenesse | 2,900 | 28.8 | 28.8 to 28.8 |
| Rotterdam Centrum | 42,900 | 38.0 | 12.8 to 87.1 |
The district figure hides as much as it shows. Prins Alexander as a whole registers 10.9, but its neighbourhoods run from 6.9 to 16.6. In Feijenoord, Kop van Zuid-Entrepot registers 8.9 while Kop van Zuid registers 32.0, more than three times as much, in the same district.
Only 7 neighbourhoods register less than the national rate
Only 7 of the 71 neighbourhoods we compare register less than the national rate, and together they are home to about 59,000 people, less than a tenth of the city. The lowest is Nesselande, a newer residential area on the north-eastern edge, at 6.9, followed by Pernis at 7.0, Hillegersberg Zuid at 8.4 and Rozenburg at 8.6.
They are not all far out. Kop van Zuid-Entrepot, just across the river from the centre, is on the list at 8.9, which shows that being central does not decide the rate on its own.
The highest rates are where people visit, not where they live
Three of the four highest rates are in places where few people live: Zuidplein (126.2), with a large shopping centre and about 1,400 residents, Dijkzigt (64.1), which holds the Erasmus MC hospital campus, and the area around the central station, Cs Kwartier (43.5). A rate per resident divides every incident over the few people who live there.
Take only the neighbourhoods with at least 4,000 residents, where the per-resident rate is less distorted, and the centre still leads. Cool, the shopping and nightlife core with about 6,500 residents, registers 87.1, and Stadsdriehoek, the old centre with about 19,000 residents, 30.9. Outside the centre the highest are Agniesebuurt (29.1), Tussendijken (21.1) and Oud Crooswijk (20.5). Those are the figures to look at if you are weighing a home there.
What the police figures do and do not tell you
These are crimes reported to and registered by the police, not all crime that happens, and people report some offences more readily than others. They cover single years, so a small neighbourhood can move a lot from one year to the next.
Use the neighbourhood figure, not the city average, to decide. You can compare every Rotterdam neighbourhood on safety and the other figures that matter to you in the explorer, open the Rotterdam page or another city, read how Rotterdam compares with Amsterdam, or check how the figures are built on our data sources page.
A note on these figures. This article uses the police figures for 2025, divided by the number of residents on 1 January 2026. The safety scores elsewhere on PlanetExpat use the 2024 figures and count only residential areas, so a number on a city or neighbourhood page can differ from the one here. Both are explained on our data sources page.