Over the past few years, the number of people annoyed by graffiti on walls and buildings, vandalised bus and tram shelters and dog droppings in their neighbourhood has been declining, according to CBS.
This decrease has been observed in urban as well as rural areas, although city dwellers are more frequently annoyed than people living in smaller communities. People living in the four major Dutch cities also think the level of decay in their own neighbourhood has been reduced.
From 2008 to 2011, the share of the Dutch population who indicated that dog droppings were a common sight in their neighbourhood dropped from 33 to 29 percent. Intentional destruction of street furniture has also declined in recent years, from 14 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2011. Graffiti on walls and buildings has also become a less common sight compared to several years ago, but the decline is less substantial.
City dwellers have to cope with deterioration of their neighbourhood environment more often than people living in small villages. In highly urbanised municipalities, the proportion of people who report that litter in the streets is a frequent phenomenon is double that of municipalities with a lower degree of urbanisation. Graffiti on walls and buildings is found three times as often in cities as in rural areas.
The level of deterioration is considered to be less serious in urban as well as rural areas. Essentially, the manner in which city dwellers and people living in small communities cope with decay in their direct environment has not changed.
The level of annoyance with neighbourhood decay also decreased within the four major cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht). Graffiti on walls and buildings and litter in the streets are obviously more common in these cities than on average across the country, but dog droppings and vandalism of street furniture are just as common as in the rest of the country, and similarly are on the decline.