Every Dutch city likes to think of itself as young and lively. The age data is more level-headed. The youngest of the 17 we cover is Utrecht, with an estimated average age of about 37, and the oldest is 's-Hertogenbosch at roughly 42 and a half. The whole spread is only about five years, narrow enough that no city is truly old or young, yet wide enough to change the feel of daily life.
The figure is an estimate. The data gives us residents in five age brackets rather than exact ages, so we take the midpoint of each bracket and treat the open 65-plus group as 75. Every city is measured the same way, so the ranking is reliable even if the exact number is approximate.
The full ranking, youngest to oldest
These are estimated average ages, rounded to one decimal.
| City | Average age |
|---|---|
| Utrecht | 37.1 |
| Groningen | 38.8 |
| Almere | 39.1 |
| Delft | 39.3 |
| Amsterdam | 39.6 |
| Rotterdam | 40.0 |
| Nijmegen | 40.0 |
| Leiden | 40.1 |
| The Hague | 40.2 |
| Eindhoven | 40.3 |
| Arnhem | 40.8 |
| Tilburg | 40.9 |
| Amstelveen | 41.2 |
| Haarlem | 41.2 |
| Breda | 41.9 |
| Maastricht | 42.4 |
| 's-Hertogenbosch | 42.5 |
The order is not random. The youngest cities are student and graduate hubs, the oldest are settled cities in the south, and the big four cluster within a year of the middle of the list.
Why the youngest cities are young
The top of the list is set by students and early-career workers. Utrecht, at about 37, pairs a large university with a strong graduate job market, so people arrive young and many stay through their twenties and thirties. Groningen follows at 38.8, the student capital of the north.
Almere is the outlier among the young, at 39.1, because its youth comes from families rather than students. It is a newer town that drew young households with children, which pulls the average down through a different route than a campus does.
Why the oldest cities are older
The bottom of the list sits in the south. 's-Hertogenbosch at 42.5, Maastricht at 42.4 and Breda at 41.9 have older, more settled populations and draw fewer of the students and young workers who keep the western cities young.
Maastricht is the interesting case. It has one of the largest student shares in the country, yet it still lands among the oldest cities, because the surrounding population skews old enough to outweigh the university. Student energy and an ageing region can sit in the same place.
A five-year band that still shifts the feel
The gap from top to bottom is only about five years, and the big cities bunch tightly around 40: Amsterdam at 39.6, Rotterdam and Nijmegen at 40.0, The Hague at 40.2. On paper the country is fairly even.
Those few years still change what a city feels like, though. A city averaging 37 carries more shared housing, late-night venues and turnover, while one averaging 42 leans toward family homes, quieter evenings and longer-term residents. The number is small, the texture it points to is not.
How we estimated it
The data records residents in five age brackets, so we estimate the mean from the bracket midpoints, with the open 65-plus group set at 75. Shifting that assumption a few years moves the absolute ages slightly but barely changes the order, since every city gets the same treatment.
You can open any city or compare them in the explorer, and the underlying age data comes from the public sources on our data sources page.