neighbourhood in Groningen

Binnenstad-Noord

4,765 residents · postal code 9712 · Part of Centrum, Groningen

Bottom 5% in the Netherlands

Everything close by, safety lags

Almost nowhere in the Netherlands is so close to so much as Binnenstad-Noord in Groningen: a 10.0 for amenities, with restaurant, supermarket and GP all within a few hundred metres. The same concentration produces the 2.5 for safety, and that is this neighbourhood's lowest figure.

But the easy story — a centre where mainly bicycles disappear — does not hold here. Theft is by far the largest item, true, but violence runs at more than six times the national median, and that is a different kind of number from a stolen bike.

The wealth pillar is easily misread. Two per cent of households have children and more than eight in ten consist of one person. In a place like that, low household incomes are partly a matter of household size — but the property value and the vacancy rate point the same way, and they stand apart from it.

no. 12,534 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
no. 106 of 120 in Groningen

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Is Binnenstad-Noord a safe neighbourhood?

The figures ⌄

Safety

Registered crimes per 1,000 people present per year: residents plus business activity. Figures for small neighbourhoods are smoothed.

Total crime

180.7 per 1,000

Violent crime

15.0 per 1,000

Burglaries

2.6 per 1,000

Property crime

131.2 per 1,000

Vandalism

5.5 per 1,000

In 2025, 1,535 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).

Tick = Dutch median

The safest neighbourhoods in Groningen →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Groningen →

The figures ⌄

Amenities

Average distance to everyday amenities, compared with the Dutch median.

Supermarket

0.3 km

GP practice

0.4 km

Train station

1.3 km

Restaurant

0.1 km

Hospital

1.3 km

Café

0.2 km

Library

0.8 km

Motorway ramp

1.8 km

Tick = Dutch median

Best amenities in Groningen →

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.

Property value

€ 298,000

Welfare recipients

25.2 per 1,000

High incomes

Low incomes

63%

Vacancy

12%

Owner-occupied

13%

Social housing

19%

Not counted

Part of this score's subject, but not part of the grade.

Single-family homes

12%

Built after 2000

Tick = Dutch median

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The figures ⌄

Quiet & nature

How tightly the addresses sit together, how much noise there is, and how much green, trees and water surround it.

Population density

12,845 inw/km²

Noise level

56 dB

Green surroundings

12%

Trees nearby

Water share

Not counted

Part of this score's subject, but not part of the grade.

Addresses per km²

7,062

Fine particles (PM2.5)

7.0 µg/m³

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

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The figures ⌄

Families

How practical this area is with children: distance to school and childcare, and how many children already live here.

Primary school

0.5 km

Households with children

Childcare

0.6 km

Secondary school

0.9 km

Residents under 15

Tick = Dutch median

The best neighbourhoods for families in Groningen →

Who lives here

Binnenstad-Noord has strikingly many young people aged 15 to 25: 48%, against 11% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.

Age profile

0–151%
NL median 14%
15–2548%
NL median 11%
25–4533%
NL median 22%
45–6510%
NL median 28%
65+7%
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
1.2 — far smaller than average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
82% — far more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
2% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
12,845 — far more 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 Binnenstad-Noord a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Binnenstad-Noord comes out at 181 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Binnenstad-Noord is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the most recorded crimes. One caveat: the figure counts per person present, not per resident. In a neighbourhood with many visitors — a centre, a station, a shopping area — it therefore comes out higher than residents experience. The figure is about what the police record, not about the people who live there.

How much crime is there in Binnenstad-Noord?

In Binnenstad-Noord the police recorded 1,535 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (181 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 Binnenstad-Noord calculated?

Binnenstad-Noord scores 2.8 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 Binnenstad-Noord 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.