The Hague likely to become new murder capital, over Rotterdam & Amsterdam

With a little over a week left in 2023, the third largest city in the Netherlands is on pace to become the municipality with the most cases identified as murder or manslaughter during the calendar year. Eleven people have been killed in The Hague this year, a striking increase from three last year. That puts the city above both Amsterdam and Rotterdam, last year's murder capital, which have had ten such cases this year.

The murder rate in the Netherlands has remained relatively low, with 126 so far this year, according to EW crime reporter Gerlof Leistra. That means that one person was killed every 68 hours this year. If the rate of murders remains the same, the Netherlands will end the year with 129, a provisional figure, as death investigations could later be ruled as foul play. Last year, there were 142 cases of murder or manslaughter in the entire country, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Unclear why more people have been killed in The Hague

Despite the improved figures, the rising case total in The Hague was somewhat surprising to Leistra, who has been compiling annual overviews of murder cases for three decades. He told NPO Radio 1 that Amsterdam and Rotterdam typically swap back and forth as the country's city with the most murders. Amsterdam now has approximately 920,000 residents, while Rotterdam has roughly 665,000 and The Hague is nearing 565,000.

"Last year Rotterdam was the murder capital, with 17 murders. There have been ten murders there so far this year. Amsterdam had ten murders last year and this year too,” Leistra explained.

There is no specific reason that explains why there has been a jump in murder cases in The Hague this year, he added. There has not been some sudden surge in gang activity there where one group assassinated a series of rivals in the city, he explained.

National murder rate seems better than last year

Should the year end at 129 murders in the Netherlands, it will put the national homicide rate at roughly 0.72 per 100,000 residents. That would be an improvement from 0.82 the previous year.

The total number of murders in the Netherlands was 126 in 2021 and 121 in 2020, the two years most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In the past 20 years, the number of murder cases was highest in 2023 at 247. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Leistra said about 280 people were killed annually at a time when the population was much smaller. That means the murder rate was much higher during those decades.

Apart from the largest cities, there are also relatively more crime victims in the province of Noord-Brabant, which Leistra said was attributed to organized drug crime there. "There are criminal groups there who are trying to kill each other.

There is also no reason to assume that The Hague will continue to carry the dubious honor next year. Leistra noted that there are "many migrant workers" in the city, saying he was surprised by the number of cases nationally where Polish people have been involved in a murder "under the influence of alcohol" following an argument in their temporary housing.

He did not provide statistics about that last claim.