neighbourhood in De Fryske Marren
Balk
4,460 residents · postal code 8561 · Part of Balk, De Fryske Marren
Plenty of space, less prosperity
A third of the surface area of Balk is water. That is exceptional and it shows directly in the 8.2 for quiet & nature, together with a noise level more than ten decibels below the national median. Quieter than this is rare in the Netherlands.
The price shows up in the amenities pillar, and it is lower than you might expect. The nearest railway station is fifteen kilometres away, but supermarket, GP and restaurant are all within six hundred metres. Because those three together weigh more than the station, a 7.5 remains: the village looks after itself, and the train is not part of it.
The wealth & income score of 3.9 hangs on incomes rather than on housing: the top income group here is about two thirds the size of the national one, while vacancy is actually low.
- no. 4,359 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
- no. 15 of 68 in De Fryske Marren
How Balk scores
Do some of these matter more to you than others?
Is Balk a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Balk comes out at 17 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is low: Balk is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the fewest recorded crimes.
The figures ⌄Safety
Registered crimes per 1,000 people present per year: residents plus business activity. Figures for small neighbourhoods are smoothed.
In 2025, 94 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).
Tick = Dutch median
The safest neighbourhoods in De Fryske Marren →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in De Fryske Marren →
The figures ⌄Amenities
Average distance to everyday amenities, compared with the Dutch median.
Tick = Dutch median
The figures ⌄Wealth & income
What the homes are worth, what residents earn and how many homes stand empty. It describes the area, not the people living in it.
Not counted
Part of this score's subject, but not part of the grade.
Tick = Dutch median
The figures ⌄Quiet & nature
How tightly the addresses sit together, how much noise there is, and how much green, trees and water surround it.
Not counted
Part of this score's subject, but not part of the grade.
Not part of the grade: air quality varies mostly between regions, barely between neighbourhoods within one municipality. WHO guideline: 5 µg/m³. Calculated annual mean, RIVM 2024.
Tick = Dutch median
The figures ⌄Families
How practical this area is with children: distance to school and childcare, and how many children already live here.
Tick = Dutch median
Who lives here
Balk has strikingly many residents aged 65 and over: 29%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.
Age profile
- 0–1515%
NL median 14%
- 15–2511%
NL median 11%
- 25–4522%
NL median 22%
- 45–6523%
NL median 28%
- 65+29%
NL median 22%
Share of residents per age group (CBS, 2025). All five bars share one scale, so their lengths can be compared with each other.
Average household size
2.1 — smaller than average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
37% — more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
30% — fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
1,332 — far less densely populated than average
NL median 2,364
Tick = Dutch median. Households with children counts towards Families, population density towards Quiet & nature; the other figures here get no grade.
Frequently asked questions
Is Balk a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Balk comes out at 17 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is low: Balk is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the fewest recorded crimes. The figure is about what the police record, not about the people who live there.
How much crime is there in Balk?
In Balk the police recorded 94 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (17 per 1,000) is not simply that count divided by the number of residents: we count residents plus workplaces, so a shopping street or station is not unfairly penalised, and for small counts we pull the figure towards the national average — otherwise a single incident would make a small neighbourhood look unsafe.
How is the grade for Balk calculated?
Balk scores 7.5 as its total score. That grade is a national position: we weigh five equally heavy scores — safety, amenities, wealth & income, quiet & nature and families — and see where Balk lands among every neighbourhood in the Netherlands. So it is not the mean of the five grades, but a place in the queue. All from open data published by CBS and the police.
The best and worst neighbourhoods of De Fryske Marren
Same total grade, same yardstick — from the top to the bottom of De Fryske Marren.
Highest grades
Lowest grades
More about this area
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