neighbourhood in Leiden

Pieterswijk

2,975 residents · postal code 2311 · Part of Binnenstad-Zuid, Leiden

Bottom 12% in the Netherlands

Everything close by, safety lags

In Pieterswijk more than four in five households consist of one person, and there is not even one child per fifty residents. This is not a residential neighbourhood like most.

The wealth score of 5.1 hides something you rarely see: the bottom income group here is much larger than nationally, but the rate of social assistance is far below the national level. Low incomes and social assistance do not move together here. Property value is above the national median, vacancy at more than double it.

The crime figure is three times the national median and is largely carried by property offences, but violence is well above the median too. That the share of greenery around it does not reach a third of the national median explains, together with density, the 2.9 for quiet & nature.

no. 11,589 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
no. 46 of 53 in Leiden

Compare with…View on the map

Do some of these matter more to you than others?

Is Pieterswijk 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

72.9 per 1,000

Violent crime

8.3 per 1,000

Burglaries

0.8 per 1,000

Property crime

45.0 per 1,000

Vandalism

4.2 per 1,000

In 2025, 378 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

0.5 km

GP practice

0.8 km

Train station

1.4 km

Restaurant

0.1 km

Hospital

2.3 km

Café

0.1 km

Library

1.1 km

Motorway ramp

2.2 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

€ 465,000

Welfare recipients

3.4 per 1,000

High incomes

15%

Low incomes

56%

Vacancy

10%

Owner-occupied

22%

Social housing

14%

Not counted

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

Single-family homes

26%

Built after 2000

Tick = Dutch median

The most affluent neighbourhoods in Leiden →

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

14,119 inw/km²

Noise level

57 dB

Green surroundings

19%

Trees nearby

Water share

Not counted

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

Addresses per km²

6,011

Fine particles (PM2.5)

8.7 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

1.7 km

Residents under 15

Tick = Dutch median

The best neighbourhoods for families in Leiden →

Who lives here

Pieterswijk has strikingly many young people aged 15 to 25: 44%, against 11% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.

Age profile

0–152%
NL median 14%
15–2544%
NL median 11%
25–4536%
NL median 22%
45–6512%
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
4% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
14,119 — 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 Pieterswijk a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Pieterswijk comes out at 73 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Pieterswijk 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 Pieterswijk?

In Pieterswijk the police recorded 378 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (73 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 Pieterswijk calculated?

Pieterswijk scores 3.4 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 Pieterswijk 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.