neighbourhood in Leiden
Houtkwartier
2,015 residents · postal code 2334 · Part of Boerhaavedistrict, Leiden
Everything close by, safety lags
The noise level in Houtkwartier lies almost seven decibels above the national median, the highest you will meet in a residential area that is not beside a motorway. Even so, the quiet & nature pillar reaches a 6.2, and that comes from the other measurements: the tree canopy is more than double the national middle and there is markedly more surface water than average. Noise alone does not decide that pillar.
Wealth & income is divided. Property value lies above the median and the share of high incomes well above it, but the share of low incomes also exceeds the national middle and social assistance runs at nearly double. This is not a neighbourhood with one income level but with two extremes side by side, and the 6.5 is the average of them.
The population make-up is pronounced: more than half of households consist of one person. Part of the 5.5 for safety is theft, roughly one and a half times the median, while burglary is rare.
- no. 4,328 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
- no. 17 of 53 in Leiden
How Houtkwartier scores
Do some of these matter more to you than others?
Is Houtkwartier a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Houtkwartier comes out at 32 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is more than in most Dutch neighbourhoods.
The figures ⌄Safety
Registered crimes per 1,000 people present per year: residents plus business activity. Figures for small neighbourhoods are smoothed.
In 2025, 85 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).
Tick = Dutch median
The safest neighbourhoods in Leiden →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Leiden →
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
Houtkwartier has strikingly many residents aged 25 to 45: 36%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.
Age profile
- 0–1515%
NL median 14%
- 15–2514%
NL median 11%
- 25–4536%
NL median 22%
- 45–6519%
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
1.8 — smaller than average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
55% — far more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
23% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
3,609 — 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 Houtkwartier a safe neighbourhood?
For 2025, Houtkwartier comes out at 32 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is more than in most Dutch neighbourhoods. 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 Houtkwartier?
In Houtkwartier the police recorded 85 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (32 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 Houtkwartier calculated?
Houtkwartier 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 Houtkwartier 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 Leiden
Same total grade, same yardstick — from the top to the bottom of Leiden.
Highest grades
Lowest grades
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