What is a good Leefbaarometer score?

Short answer: the Leefbaarometer expresses a neighbourhood's liveability on a national scale where higher is more liveable. More important than the exact number are the five dimensions beneath it — that's where you see why a neighbourhood scores the way it does.

What the Leefbaarometer measures

The Leefbaarometer is an instrument of the Ministry of the Interior (BZK) that estimates the liveability of every neighbourhood in the Netherlands based on hundreds of underlying characteristics. It's not an opinion but a statistical model, calibrated on how people actually experience liveability.

The five dimensions

• Housing — type, quality and composition of the housing stock.
• Amenities — shops, schools, hospitality and care nearby.
• Physical environment — green, water, noise and the layout of public space.
• Social cohesion — how connected and stable the population is.
• Nuisance and insecurity — note: here a negative value means more nuisance.

That last dimension confuses many people. For 'nuisance/insecurity', negative is bad news: the more negative, the more nuisance and insecurity the neighbourhood has. For the other dimensions: higher is better.

So what is 'good'?

There's no official pass/fail line. As a rule of thumb: around average is average, clearly positive is pleasantly liveable, and clearly below deserves a critical look — not to bail, but to see which dimension drags the score down. A neighbourhood can score low on amenities but fine on safety; that's very different from the other way round.

A score is not a verdict on one home

The Leefbaarometer applies to the neighbourhood, not to a specific home. A quiet street in an average-scoring neighbourhood can be perfectly fine. Use the score to ask focused questions, not as a final verdict.

CheckBuurt.NL retrieves the Leefbaarometer score and the five dimensions per address, alongside crime, energy label and schools, and translates them into one readable verdict with source and resolution.