Dutch murder total up 6%, Rotterdam the new murder capital with 16 victims in 2022

A total of 133 victims in 128 separate cases were killed by murder or manslaughter in the Netherlands last year, according to preliminary figures collected by the Telegraaf. Rotterdam will take the dubious title of murder capital of the Netherlands for 2022. Sixteen people were killed by violence there. The city is followed by Amsterdam, where eleven people were killed.

The national figure of 133 was determined by the newspaper using data provided by the regional police districts and website Moordatlas.nl. The website tracks all cases of murder and manslaughter in the Netherlands.

The figure is nearly six percent higher than in 2021, when 126 people were killed, according to Statistics Netherlands. The current total is ten percent higher than in 2020, when there were 121 victims of murder or manslaughter.

Male victims accounted for at least 80 of the victims, almost double the number of female victims, 41.

The preliminary data shows 12 of the victims were below the age of 18. Three of them, two girls and a boy, were babies or toddlers. Seven of the children were boys between 4-17 years of age, while two others were girls in the same age group.

With 16 victims, Rotterdam had more murder or manslaughter incidents than any other municipality in the Netherlands. The greater Rotterdam area accounted for 26 victims in total. Rotterdam is the largest city in the province of Zuid-Holland, which also had the highest number of victims, 35, compared to any other province.

"This year's statistics are very sad. Every victim is one too many,” said Brigitte Nolden, the head of the Rotterdam police district’s regional detective’s division. “The impact is enormous, because behind every victim are next of kin," Nolden told the newspaper.

Noord-Holland and Noord-Brabant each had 22 victims, the newspaper reported, followed by Limburg with 16. Gelderland and Zeeland both had eight violent deaths, while Overijssel had six.

Preliminary data identified three victims in Flevoland, and two victims each in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen.

Data reviewed by AD last week put the number of victims in the city of Utrecht at zero, with three murder or manslaughter cases in The Hague. The province of Utrecht looked likely to end the year with six or seven cases in total.