neighbourhood in Leiden

Merenwijk-Centrum

1,055 residents · postal code 2317 · Part of Merenwijkdistrict, Leiden

Bottom 18% in the Netherlands

Everything close by, safety lags

Merenwijk-Centrum consists entirely of flats, four in ten residents are 65 or older and seven in ten households consist of one person. That composition helps explain the 3.3 for wealth & income: property values are far below the national median and social assistance almost five times above it.

The crime figure is the neighbourhood's most striking number. It is more than three times above the national median and two thirds of it is property crime; violence and burglary are above it as well, so this is not only a matter of things going missing. Set against that are the surroundings: at 8.2, quiet & nature ranks in the best quarter of the country, with a tree canopy at more than twice the national figure and little noise. Every everyday facility is within a few hundred metres too.

no. 10,748 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
no. 40 of 53 in Leiden

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Is Merenwijk-Centrum 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

78.5 per 1,000

Violent crime

4.9 per 1,000

Burglaries

1.8 per 1,000

Property crime

51.0 per 1,000

Vandalism

3.3 per 1,000

In 2025, 136 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.

Supermarket

0.2 km

GP practice

0.4 km

Train station

3.9 km

Restaurant

0.2 km

Hospital

3.5 km

Café

2.1 km

Library

0.4 km

Motorway ramp

3.3 km

Tick = Dutch median

Best amenities in Leiden →

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

€ 264,000

Welfare recipients

37.9 per 1,000

High incomes

15%

Low incomes

40%

Vacancy

Owner-occupied

31%

Social housing

34%

Not counted

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

Single-family homes

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

5,415 inw/km²

Noise level

49 dB

Green surroundings

51%

Trees nearby

18%

Water share

10%

Not counted

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

Addresses per km²

2,660

Fine particles (PM2.5)

8.3 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

The quietest, greenest neighbourhoods in Leiden →

The figures ⌄

Families

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

Primary school

0.6 km

Households with children

Childcare

0.6 km

Secondary school

1.3 km

Residents under 15

Tick = Dutch median

The best neighbourhoods for families in Leiden →

Who lives here

Merenwijk-Centrum has strikingly many residents aged 65 and over: 40%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.

Age profile

0–155%
NL median 14%
15–255%
NL median 11%
25–4530%
NL median 22%
45–6520%
NL median 28%
65+40%
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
1.4 — far smaller than average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
71% — far more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
7% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
5,415 — 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 Merenwijk-Centrum a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Merenwijk-Centrum comes out at 79 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Merenwijk-Centrum 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 Merenwijk-Centrum?

In Merenwijk-Centrum the police recorded 136 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (79 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 Merenwijk-Centrum calculated?

Merenwijk-Centrum scores 3.8 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 Merenwijk-Centrum 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.