Because of my experiences in places such as Dutch cities, I often find myself wondering how easily people’s origins or ethnic diversity can be turned into an arguments that such a society cannot function, or that it must inevitably be less safe—for me, these arguments are a nonsense. My experience in the Netherlands has been the opposite. Some of my favorite places in Europe are also places with exceptionally diverse populations.
One of them is the province of Zuid-Holland, which I have mentioned several times before. This is where Rotterdam, The Hague and many other beautiful cities are located. Zuid-Holland as a whole is a beautiful place and is often among the leading places in Europe and in the world when it comes to quality of life—also according to the current Numbeo ranking, cities in this province are also among the top ten cities in the world for Quality of Life.
This time, however, I do not want to focus on the entire province—although this reality is similar to Zuid-Holland as whole. I want to focus on one particular place that, in my opinion, illustrates very well just how diverse contemporary European society can be — Rotterdam-Zuid.
Rotterdam-Zuid
The Dutch statistical office CBS records statistics and these statistics show just how exceptionally diverse some of the neighborhoods here are.
For example, in Afrikaanderwijk, only 17% of residents had a Dutch background in 2025, while 74% had a background outside Europe and approximately another 9% had a European background outside the Netherlands. Put simply, around three quarters of the residents of this neighbourhood have a non-European background.
A similar picture can be seen in Hillesluis, where people with a non-European background accounted for approximately 71% of the population in 2025. Around 15% had a Dutch background, while another 14% had a European background outside the Netherlands.
In Tarwewijk, only 18% of residents had a Dutch background in 2025. 57% had a non-European background and another 25% had a European background outside the Netherlands.
These figures illustrate quite well just how dramatically the demographic composition can differ between different parts of the same European city.
Rotterdam-Zuid as a whole has a very visible Black population, partly due to communities with Surinamese, Caribbean, Cape Verdean and Sub-Saharan African backgrounds. At the same time, there are also large communities with Turkish, Moroccan, Muslim and many other backgrounds.
So when a man walk through Afrikaanderwijk, Hillesluis, Bloemhof, Tarwewijk or Feijenoord, a one encounter people with roots in many different parts of the world — Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Turkey, Morocco, and other parts of Asia and Europe.
And in my opinion, this combination is precisely what characterises Rotterdam-Zuid.
Rotterdam-Zuid as a multicultural space
This diversity is also evident when looking at Rotterdam as a whole. According to 2025 figures, approximately 248,000 residents of Rotterdam had a Dutch background, 80,000 had a European background outside the Netherlands, and 281,000 had a non-European background.
National statistics also show that Rotterdam, together with Amsterdam and The Hague, is among the Dutch cities with a very high proportion of residents with non-European backgrounds. In 2024, people with a non-European background accounted for just over 40% of Rotterdam’s population.
And Rotterdam-Zuid contains some neighbourhoods where this proportion is even higher.
Yet Rotterdam remains one city, one society and one shared everyday public space in which a very high level of ethnic diversity exists. For me, this diversity is one of the things that makes Rotterdam such a fascinating and enjoyable place — together with its highly modern architecture, interesting history and constantly changing society.
For me, Rotterdam-Zuid is therefore one of the most interesting examples of how extraordinary cultural and ethnic diversity does not, in itself, mean that a society cannot function. And this highly diverse part of Rotterdam-Zuid lies directly next to one of the city’s most modern, international, and one of the most popular areas — Kop van Zuid.
Quite the opposite — Rotterdam shows how a highly diverse population can simply be a natural part of everyday life. Rotterdam exists because of this very diverse society.
How I said in the start of this article, no one can convince me that such a society cannot function, or that it must be unsafe.
