neighbourhood in Zaanstad

Oud West

5,350 residents · postal code 1506 · Part of Zaandam West, Zaanstad

Bottom 22% in the Netherlands

Everything close by, safety lags

A 9.4 for amenities alongside a 2.8 for safety: Oud West in Zaandam is a textbook example of a busy urban centre. A restaurant, the supermarket and the primary school are a few hundred metres away, and at the same time the number of registered offences is at almost double the Dutch level — across all four counted types, not just one.

What hits the quiet pillar hardest is the greenery, or rather the lack of it. Around Oud West less than a quarter of the area is green, while nationally that is around half. That there is relatively much water does not make up for it.

In the wealth figure what stands out is in fact how ordinary the incomes are: the top and the bottom income group are exactly at the national level here. The 4.7 comes from the property value, from the share of social assistance recipients and from a vacancy rate that comes out above the Dutch median.

no. 10,296 of 13,075 neighbourhoods with a grade
no. 45 of 72 in Zaanstad

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Is Oud West a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Oud West comes out at 45 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Oud West 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.

Total crime

45.3 per 1,000

Violent crime

5.1 per 1,000

Burglaries

1.2 per 1,000

Property crime

20.9 per 1,000

Vandalism

4.6 per 1,000

In 2025, 379 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).

Tick = Dutch median

The safest neighbourhoods in Zaanstad →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Zaanstad →

The figures ⌄

Amenities

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

Supermarket

0.5 km

GP practice

1.0 km

Train station

1.2 km

Restaurant

0.3 km

Hospital

1.6 km

Café

0.5 km

Library

0.5 km

Motorway ramp

2.3 km

Tick = Dutch median

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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

€ 378,000

Welfare recipients

20.6 per 1,000

High incomes

19%

Low incomes

37%

Vacancy

Owner-occupied

51%

Social housing

24%

Not counted

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

Single-family homes

43%

Built after 2000

14%

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

8,709 inw/km²

Noise level

53 dB

Green surroundings

23%

Trees nearby

Water share

12%

Not counted

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

Addresses per km²

3,788

Fine particles (PM2.5)

8.5 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

0.6 km

Households with children

24%

Childcare

0.4 km

Secondary school

1.4 km

Residents under 15

13%

Tick = Dutch median

The best neighbourhoods for families in Zaanstad →

Who lives here

Oud West has strikingly many residents aged 25 to 45: 34%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.

Age profile

0–1513%
NL median 14%
15–2512%
NL median 11%
25–4534%
NL median 22%
45–6525%
NL median 28%
65+17%
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
52% — far more than average
NL median 31%
Households with children
24% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
8,709 — 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 Oud West a safe neighbourhood?

For 2025, Oud West comes out at 45 recorded crimes per 1,000 people present; the national middle is 24. That is high: Oud West 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 Oud West?

In Oud West the police recorded 379 crimes in 2025: theft, burglary, violence and vandalism combined. The comparison figure above (45 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 Oud West calculated?

Oud West scores 4.1 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 Oud West 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.