Amsterdam Crime Rises Despite Lower Index: Residents Fear Streets More in 2025

Amsterdam posted the Netherlands' highest traditional crime rate in 2025 at 63 incidents per thousand residents, even while the city's overall crime index fell a notch from the previous year.

The shift matters now because the victimization index and reported feelings of insecurity both moved higher than 2024 levels, leaving more people directly affected by incidents they encounter on streets and in neighbourhoods they use every day.

Nowhere is that gap more visible than in Nieuw-West, where insecurity perception and victimization rates sit above every other borough. Petty theft such as pickpocketing and bike theft continues to hit tourists hardest in the busiest central districts.

Violent incidents and nuisance reports

Police recorded 72 shooting incidents in 2025, one of them fatal, alongside 124 stabbing incidents that marked a nearly 10 percent increase from 2024 and left three people dead. Person-related nuisance reports reached nearly 25,500 in 2024, and 45 percent of residents said they had experienced street intimidation that year.

Community members in Nieuw-West and central tourist zones describe the same pattern in everyday terms: repeated bike thefts, groups loitering with aggressive behaviour, and a sense that reporting incidents changes little. Tourists arriving in the city centre receive repeated warnings from locals about watching wallets and securing bicycles, advice that matches the documented theft risks.

What residents can do next

City data from onderzoek.amsterdam.nl and politie.nl show the trend is already visible in 2025 numbers, so residents and visitors are adjusting routines by avoiding poorly lit stretches after dark and using well-used bike racks in monitored areas. The same sources indicate that Nieuw-West and central districts remain the places where these precautions register most strongly with people who live or work there.