Groningen's City Centre Climbs to 12th Place in Nationwide Ranking
Rising in the ranks, Groningen excels in shopping facilities and street design, but faces challenges with parking rates.
The city centre of Groningen has improved its position, rising to 12th place in the list of the top 100 most vital city centres in the Netherlands. This ranking, released by research agency Goudappel, reflects Groningen's enhanced status among Dutch urban centres, moving up one spot from the previous year.
Goudappel conducts this comprehensive study every two years, evaluating the vitality of city centres based on factors such as demographics, the range of shopping and leisure facilities, spatial quality, and accessibility. The assessment also considers how frequently people shop, the quality of the shopping streets, safety, vacancy rates, and population composition. Additionally, the presence of greenery and outdoor amenities like benches in shopping areas, which make city streets more appealing, particularly in the summer, are also taken into account.
Groningen's city centre excels in the categories of shopping facilities and street design, ranking among the top 20 in these areas nationwide. However, the city scores notably low in terms of maximum parking rates.
Utrecht once again topped the list, marking its fifth consecutive time as the highest-ranked city centre, followed by Amsterdam and The Hague in second and third places, respectively. Despite some challenges, Groningen's steady rise in the rankings reflects ongoing improvements and a strong focus on enhancing the city's spatial quality.