Vught judged best place to live

16 June 2004

AMSTERDAM — The Vught municipality has been chosen as the best place to live in the Netherlands. Utrecht was placed 20th in the top 50 and was the best of the four largest cities.

According to Dutch weekly Elsevier — which based its findings on 22 points, divided into eight main categories — the residents of Westervoort in the Gelderland province live in the worst Dutch municipality.

The eight main categories were life satisfaction, facilities such as schools and shops, public and transport safety, healthcare, accessibility, economic vitality, leisure options (such as sporting fields, restaurants and cultural activities) and the prosperity of residents.

The municipalities with the best mix of these categories are listed in the top 50 of 489 Dutch municipalities. The research was conducted in 2003 before the total number of municipalities decreased to 483 on 1 January 2004.

The places of Laren and Zeist were placed second and third respectively.

Eleven of the top 50 cities have more than 100,000 residents. Of these, Arnhem (16) and Armersfoort (17) performed best.

Of the four largest Dutch cities, Utrecht was ranked 20th, while Amsterdam and The Hague also did reasonably well, ranking 24th and 31st respectively. But Rotterdam — confronted with crime and ethnic tension — was not even placed in the top 50.

In the special categories, Bloemendaal offered the most picturesque living environment and Maastricht had the most facilities. Millingen aan de Rijn is the safest municipality, Utrecht is the most accessible and Haarlemmermeer has the strongest economy.

Subject: Dutch news