neighbourhood in Veenendaal

Petenbos

3,475 residents · postal code 3903 · Part of Zuidoost, Veenendaal

Top 4% in the Netherlands

Safe, but everything is a drive away

Petenbos is among the five hundred highest-scoring neighbourhoods in the country, and that rests on a broad profile rather than one outlier: safety, wealth & income and families are all three well above the national middle and no pillar drops below six.

All four types of reported offence stay below the national median except burglary, which comes out slightly above. Property offences do not even reach forty per cent of the middle, and at this population size that is not noise.

Amenities are the weak side, at 6.1. The primary school is five hundred metres away and the station just over two kilometres, but the GP is nearly two kilometres off and the supermarket a kilometre — precisely the two components that together determine more than four tenths of that pillar. The tree canopy within three hundred metres is close to double the national level.

no. 421 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
no. 2 of 36 in Veenendaal

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Is Petenbos a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Petenbos comes out at 10 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is low: Petenbos is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the fewest recorded crimes.

The figures ⌄

Safety

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

Total crime

10.0 per 1,000

Violent crime

0.7 per 1,000

Burglaries

0.9 per 1,000

Property crime

3.3 per 1,000

Vandalism

0.7 per 1,000

In 2025, 35 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).

Tick = Dutch median

The safest neighbourhoods in Veenendaal →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Veenendaal →

The figures ⌄

Amenities

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

Supermarket

1.0 km

GP practice

1.8 km

Train station

2.1 km

Restaurant

1.2 km

Hospital

1.7 km

Café

2.4 km

Library

2.9 km

Motorway ramp

1.1 km

Tick = Dutch median

Best amenities in Veenendaal →

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

€ 502,000

Welfare recipients

5.8 per 1,000

High incomes

24%

Low incomes

35%

Vacancy

Owner-occupied

83%

Social housing

16%

Not counted

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

Single-family homes

82%

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

5,192 inw/km²

Noise level

49 dB

Green surroundings

52%

Trees nearby

16%

Water share

Not counted

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

Addresses per km²

1,493

Fine particles (PM2.5)

8.9 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

41%

Childcare

0.5 km

Secondary school

1.1 km

Residents under 15

16%

Tick = Dutch median

The best neighbourhoods for families in Veenendaal →

Who lives here

The age profile of Petenbos looks much like that of the average Dutch neighbourhood.

Age profile

0–1516%
NL median 14%
15–2511%
NL median 11%
25–4521%
NL median 22%
45–6532%
NL median 28%
65+20%
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
2.4 — around the average
NL median 2.3
Single-person households
24% — fewer than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
41% — more than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
5,192 — 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 Petenbos a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Petenbos comes out at 10 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is low: Petenbos is among the 20% of Dutch neighbourhoods with the fewest recorded crimes. The figure is about what the police record, not about the people who live there.

How much crime is there in Petenbos?

In Petenbos the police recorded 35 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (10 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 Petenbos calculated?

Petenbos scores 9.8 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 Petenbos 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.