Delft: 26,000 students, 1.72 people per household, and a 22-month wait for a room

Delft has 110,089 residents and about 26,000 university students.

Nearly one person in four is at TU Delft, the average household holds 1.72 people, and 42% of the housing stock belongs to housing corporations.

Every other fact about living here follows from those three numbers.

What it actually is

A small city with a complete identity of its own, which is what separates it from every other place around The Hague.

It got city rights in 1246 and was one of the major towns of Holland until the seventeenth century.

Willem van Oranje lived here from 1572 until he was assassinated here in 1584, which is why it is the Prinsenstad, and his tomb and the royal burial vault are in the Nieuwe Kerk on the Markt.

The historic centre is built around two parallel canals, the Oude Delft and the Nieuwe Delft, with the Oude Kerk between them.

Vermeer worked here.

Delft blue is still made at De Porceleyne Fles, and that is now the only place in the city where you can watch it being made.

Twenty-one per cent of the housing predates 1945, and in the binnenstad the share is far higher.

It is the only town on this list where the centre is a destination in its own right rather than a shopping errand, and people come from The Hague on a Saturday rather than the other way round.

The money

Average WOZ value 352,000 euro in 2025, the lowest of the six towns around The Hague and below the Den Haag figure of 383,000.

Do not read that as cheap.

It is an average dragged down by a very large stock of small corporation flats: 37% of homes are owner-occupied, 42% are corporation rental and 20% private rental, and 67% are classed as flats.

Average income was 33,200 euro per resident and 39,100 per earner in 2024, the lowest of the six and below Den Haag’s 35,200 and 43,900.

That is a student effect rather than a poverty one, and it is the clearest sign in the data of what kind of city this is.

The age profile confirms it.

Twenty per cent of residents are aged 15 to 25 and 31% are 25 to 45, against 12% under 15 and 17% over 65.

About 70% of TU Delft’s students are male as of 2025, and the male 20 to 24 population here has run at almost three times the national average.

The housing problem, stated plainly

Delft has a student housing shortage of around 1,600 units, which local reporting says could grow to 3,500.

Students registering with DUWO, the main student landlord, find a place after an average of 22 months of active searching.

Private student houses are disappearing as landlords sell up, which pushes more demand onto the corporations.

The knock-on for everybody else is direct.

Small flats in Delft are competed for by a population that renews every September, at rents set by that competition, which is why a one-bedroom here can cost what a two-bedroom costs in Rijswijk ten minutes up the line.

The city is adding stock, with about 2,500 new student units expected in and around Delft by 2026 and a coalition target of another 1,000 by 2030, plus roughly 1,300 dwellings at Harnaschpolder, but none of that has landed yet.

If you are not a student, the practical advice in renting in The Hague still applies, but register with estate agents who work the family and expat end of the market rather than the room market, and expect to look outside the binnenstad.

The scam warnings in the rental scams article matter more in Delft than anywhere else in the region, for the obvious reason: a city of newly arrived young people paying deposits by transfer is exactly the market fraudsters want.

Getting to Den Haag

Well, and by two different modes.

The railway runs in a 2.3 kilometre tunnel under the city, opened on 28 February 2015, carrying between 300 and 350 trains a day where a hated 1964 viaduct used to stand.

The station above it, by Mecanoo and shared with the municipal offices, has bicycle parking for 8,700 bikes with 5,000 of those underground.

There is a second station, Delft Campus, for the university side.

Intercity and Sprinter services both call.

Journey planners put Den Haag Centraal to Delft at about 14 minutes with a departure roughly every 15 minutes, and the Intercities carry on to Rotterdam, Schiphol, Amsterdam, Vlissingen and Arnhem, which is a far better national position than Leidschendam or Wassenaar can offer.

The train article covers the wider network.

Tram 1 also runs the whole way, Scheveningen Noord to Delft Tanthof, and is the last of the old Dutch interurban tram lines still operating.

Tram 19 links Delft to Leidschendam and Leidschenveen.

Both are slow compared with the train and both put you down in the middle of things rather than at a station, which is described further in the tram and bus article.

Who lives there

63,476 households at an average of 1.72 people, the smallest households anywhere in this guide.

Fifty-seven per cent of residents were of Dutch origin in 2025, 14% of European origin and 29% from outside Europe.

TU Delft has close to 6,900 international students, about 26% of its intake, and two in five first-year students come from abroad.

Population density is 4,862 per square kilometre and registered crime was 53 per thousand inhabitants in 2025, against 69 for Den Haag.

It is a busy small city rather than a rough one.

English works here more completely than in any of the other towns, because the university runs on it.

That is a real quality-of-life difference and it is the reason a lot of internationals who work in The Hague end up living in Delft anyway.

Whether you should learn Dutch regardless is argued in the Dutch language article.

The honest drawbacks

It is a student city and it behaves like one.

The centre is loud on Thursday nights, the population turns over every September, and a large share of your neighbours will be twenty-one.

If you are forty with a small child, that is not charming for long.

It is small.

The centre is walkable in twenty minutes end to end, and the cultural offer beyond the museums and the churches is thin compared with The Hague’s, which is a short train ride away and where most of the things to do actually are.

Municipal charges have historically been steep: in 2016 Delft had the highest residential charges of any larger municipality in the Netherlands, a legacy of development deficits that showed up in the city budget from 2014.

Check the current Delft rates rather than assuming the Den Haag figures in the cost of living article.

And there is no beach.

After a year in The Hague that turns out to matter to more people than expected.

So is it worth it

Yes, if you want to live in a town with a centre worth walking through, you are comfortable with the noise and turnover of a university city, and your work is in Delft, The Hague or anywhere on the Rotterdam to Amsterdam corridor.

It is the best-connected and most interesting of the six, and the only one that is a place in its own right rather than a suburb with a name.

No, if you want a quiet family street at a sensible price, because the housing shortage means you will pay for the privilege and wait for it.

Those people are better served by Rijswijk, Zoetermeer or Voorburg, and which district suits which life covers the option of simply staying in the city.

Sources

• AlleCijfers, gemeente Delft (CBS and Kadaster data): 110,089 inhabitants in 2026; 63,476 households at an average of 1.72 persons; average WOZ value 352,000 euro in 2025; 37% owner-occupied, 42% corporation rental, 20% private rental; 67% flats; 21% built before 1945; average income 33,200 euro per resident and 39,100 per earner in 2024; population density 4,862 per km2; 53 registered crimes per 1,000 inhabitants in 2025; origin 57% Netherlands, 14% Europe, 29% outside Europe in 2025; ages 0 to 15 12%, 15 to 25 20%, 25 to 45 31%, 45 to 65 20%, 65 and over 17% in 2026
• AlleCijfers, gemeente Den Haag: average WOZ 383,000 euro in 2025, average income 35,200 euro per resident and 43,900 per earner in 2024, 69 registered crimes per 1,000 inhabitants in 2025
• Dutch Wikipedia, Delft: city rights in 1246; Willem van Oranje resident from 1572 until his assassination in 1584 and the Prinsenstad nickname; the Nieuwe Kerk on the Markt with Willem van Oranje’s monument and the royal burial vault; the parallel canals Oude Delft and Nieuwe Delft with the Oude Kerk between them; Delft blue now only made and shown at De Porceleyne Fles; about 70% of students male in 2025 and the male 20 to 24 population almost three times the national average; 110,044 inhabitants at 1 January 2026; the rail tunnel and underground station in service from 28 February 2015 replacing the 1964 viaduct; development deficits in the municipal budget by 2014 and the highest residential charges of larger Dutch municipalities in 2016; about 1,300 dwellings under construction at Harnaschpolder; tram line 1 as the last old interlocal tram line in the Netherlands still in operation
• English Wikipedia, Delft railway station: a 2.3 kilometre rail tunnel carrying between 300 and 350 trains a day, station by Mecanoo shared with the municipal offices opened 28 February 2015, bicycle parking for 8,700 bikes with 5,000 underground, Intercity series 1100, 2200, 2300, 3200 and 3500 and Sprinter series 5000, 5100 and 5200
• Delta (TU Delft), 2025 and 2026 reporting: about 26,000 students at TU Delft; almost 6,900 international students, around 26% of the student body; two in five first-year students from abroad; a shortage of 1,600 student housing units in Delft, possibly rising to 3,500; an average of 22 months of active searching before a student finds a DUWO unit; about 2,500 new student units expected in Delft and surroundings by 2026 and a coalition target of 1,000 more by 2030; private student houses disappearing as landlords sell
• Rome2Rio journey planner and rail.cc, September 2026: Den Haag Centraal to Delft by train, about 14 minutes, with a departure roughly every 15 minutes
• Dutch Wikipedia, Haagse tram: line 1 Scheveningen Noord to Delft Tanthof and line 19 Leidschendam and Leidschenveen to Delft