district in Utrecht
Noordwest
Noordwest has 13 neighbourhoods with 45,065 residents in total.
Noordwest is the older Utrecht of Ondiep and the 2e Daalsebuurt, thirteen neighbourhoods and just over 45,000 residents pressed against the city centre. Amenities run well into the black at 9.0, while wealth and income sits just under the national middle at 5.4. Safety remains a sore point at 3.7, and quiet and nature gets no further than 3.5. The 5.2 overall sums up a district in slow transition.
no. 8 of the 10 districts of Utrecht
Short answer: Noordwest scores 5.2 as a district of Utrecht, no. 8 of the 10 districts of Utrecht. Its strongest neighbourhood is Schaakbuurt en omgeving (6.8), the worst Nijenoord, Hoogstraat en omgeving (3.3). The district has 13 neighbourhoods with 45,065 residents in total.
Key figures for Noordwest
- residents
- 45,065
- neighbourhoods
- 13
- km² of land
- 4.4
How Noordwest scores
Do some of these matter more to you than others?
The figures ⌄Safety
Registered crimes per 1,000 people present per year: residents plus business activity. Figures for small neighbourhoods are smoothed.
In 2025, 2,156 crimes were recorded here. The figures above are per 1,000 people present (residents + businesses).
Tick = Dutch median
The safest neighbourhoods in Utrecht →The most dangerous neighbourhoods in Utrecht →
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
Noordwest has strikingly many residents aged 25 to 45: 43%, against 22% in the average Dutch neighbourhood.
Age profile
- 0–1514%
NL median 14%
- 15–2513%
NL median 11%
- 25–4543%
NL median 22%
- 45–6520%
NL median 28%
- 65+10%
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
22% — far fewer than average
NL median 35%
Residents per km²
10,998 — 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. Average of the neighbourhoods in Noordwest, weighted by population.
The best and worst neighbourhoods of Noordwest
The same total grade, the same yardstick — from the top to the bottom of Noordwest.
Neighbourhoods in Noordwest
Sorted by total grade
- 1Schaakbuurt en omgeving6.8
- 2Geuzenwijk6.3
- 3Queeckhovenplein en omgeving5.8
- 4Ondiep5.7
- 5Pijlsweerd-Zuid5.7
- 6Elinkwijk en omgeving5.5
- 7Julianapark en omgeving5.1
- 8Prins Bernhardplein en omgeving4.8
- 9Egelantierstraat, Mariëndaalstraat e.o.4.6
- 10Zuilen-Noord4.4
- 112e Daalsebuurt en omgeving4.3
- 12Pijlsweerd-Noord3.7
- 13Nijenoord, Hoogstraat en omgeving3.3