Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Amsterdam Tops 2025 Atlas Ranking as Maastricht Makes Biggest Gain

The study's broader welfare measure highlights quality-of-life leaders outside major hubs.

Overview

  • Atlas voor Gemeenten again names Amsterdam most attractive to live in, with Amstelveen, Utrecht and Leiden rounding out the top four.
  • Hengelo leads the separate broad-welfare index that tracks quality of life across domains such as health, work-life balance and safety, while Rotterdam ranks lowest.
  • The attractiveness index leans on willingness-to-pay and work accessibility, which researchers note disadvantages peripheral cities like Maastricht and Groningen.
  • Maastricht climbs from 40 to 34 on attractiveness, and residents credit safety investments such as cameras and active neighborhood policing for gains in broad welfare; the mayor welcomes the rise but says the city remains undervalued.
  • Emmen ranks last again on attractiveness among the 50 largest municipalities, yet it scores well on safety and improves to 17th on the broad-welfare measure.