neighbourhood in Haarlem
Binnenstad
3,435 residents · postal code 2011 · Part of Oude Stad, Haarlem
Everything close by, safety lags
Haarlem's Binnenstad has the highest possible amenities score and at the same time sits in the bottom tenth of the country on both safety and quiet & nature. All three figures describe the same thing: an old core where bars, shops and homes are stacked together.
Almost two thirds of the offence rate here is property crime, more than four times the national median. Burglary, by contrast, is barely above the middle. In a neighbourhood visited daily by many people who do not live there, that is a different kind of insecurity than the headline figure suggests.
What keeps the wealth & income pillar at 7.4 rather than higher is vacancy: three times the Dutch middle. Property values and both income measures point the other way. In a neighbourhood where more than half of households consist of one person, that puts the finger on the housing market rather than on the wallet.
- no. 7,275 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
- no. 75 of 97 in Haarlem
How Binnenstad scores
Do some of these matter more to you than others?
Is Binnenstad a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Binnenstad comes out at 60 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Binnenstad is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the most 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, 425 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).
Tick = Dutch median
The safest neighbourhoods in Haarlem →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Haarlem →
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
Binnenstad has strikingly many residents aged 25 to 45: 43%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.
Age profile
- 0–156%
NL median 14%
- 15–2511%
NL median 11%
- 25–4543%
NL median 22%
- 45–6524%
NL median 28%
- 65+15%
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
1.6 — far smaller than average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
58% — far more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
13% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
13,251 — 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 a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Binnenstad comes out at 60 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Binnenstad 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?
In Binnenstad the police recorded 425 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (60 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 calculated?
Binnenstad scores 5.8 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 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 Haarlem
Same total grade, same yardstick — from the top to the bottom of Haarlem.
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