Amsterdam still the unsafest Dutch city

Amsterdam was once again the most unsafe city in the Netherlands last year, according to Dutch newspaper AD's annual crime meter for 2015. Pickpockets are still an increasing problem in the capital city, with 9,313 cases of pick-pocketing reported to the police last year, an increase of 2.7 percent compared to 2014. The number of thefts from cars increased by 3.8 percent to 9,965. Perhaps the most concerning is a 40 percent increase in the number of rapes in the city compared to 2014. Last year 137 rapes were reported to the Amsterdam police, compared to 98 in 2014. The number of muggings dropped with 15.5 percent with 1,425 reported last year. Car thefts dropped by 8.9 percent to 1,693 and burglaries dropped with 8 percent to 5,082. Amsterdam has been the most unsafe city in the Netherlands for years. This year's second place goes to Maastricht. Eindhoven, Rotterdam and The Hague complete the top 5. Over the Netherlands as a whole, the crime rate fell last year, with common crimes like burglaries, robberies and assaults decreasing. But in a quarter of Dutch municipalities, crime increased. According to AD, this was mostly the case in smaller towns, with an average of 29 thousand residents. Ten Boer in Groningen was the safest municipality in the Netherlands last year. There not a single car was stolen, no one was mugged or robbed and there were no reports of pickpockets.