Amsterdam has biggest cultural offering in Netherlands

Amsterdam has the most to offer of all municipalities in the Netherlands when it comes to culture. Maastricht and Leeuwarden are in second and third place respectively, according to the new Atlas for Municipalities presented in Leeuwarden on Wednesday afternoon, Het Parool reports.

Among the provinces, Groningen has the biggest cultural offering, followed by Zeeland and Noord-Holland. Flevoland is last on the ranking.

This cultural index was compiled by the Boekman foundation, among others. The researchers looked at the size and variety of cultural offerings based on 20 indicators in the fields of performing arts, heritage, visual arts, literature and film. The data was analyzed based on what cultural offerings mean per inhabitant.

Amsterdam has six times as much to offer per inhabitant as the lowest of the 50 municipalities on the list, Spijkenisse. Almere and Lelystad also scored low. As for the other large cities in the Netherlands, Utrecht came in 4th place, The Hague in 13th and Rotterdam in 17th place. 

Rotterdam's low position in the ranking mainly has to do with its limited supply of cultural heritage - much of the city was destroyed in World War II. The supply of performing arts per inhabitant is also lacking, according to the researchers.