North Holland's Toilet-Friendliest Municipality is Alkmaar

‍OnSaturday, November 19, 2022, it was World Toilet Day. On this day, attention is paid to the importance of good sanitation and access to clean and safe toilets for all.

In the Netherlands, there is work to be done because from recent research has shown that one in five people regularly stay home because of the lack of toilets. It is therefore safe to say that this is a social problem. To draw attention to this problem on World Toilet Day we annually make the well-known ranking of "the most toilet-friendly municipality of the Netherlands" is announced.

Not only on World Toilet Day should attention be paid to (the solution of) this social problem. As far as we are concerned, this should always be on the agenda. That is why we zoom in on one of our 12 provinces every month on our website, giving insight into how the municipalities within that province are doing. Would you also like to be the first to receive this data in your mailbox every month? Sign up for the newsletter!

We are going down the provinces not in alphabetical order, but by the best municipality of the worst province to be found. This month we are zooming in on the province of North Holland

Province of Groningen - Municipality of Groningen (124) - December 2022
Province of Flevoland - Municipality of Noordoostpolder (90) - January 2023
Province of Gelderland - Municipality of Harderwijk (16) - February 2023
Province of Overijssel - Municipality of Losser (11) - March 2023
Province of Drenthe - Municipality of Assen (10) - April 2023
Province of North Brabant - Municipality ofMunicipality of Vught (7) - May 2023
Province of Limburg - Municipality of Roermond (6)- June 2023
Province of South Holland -Municipality of Rotterdam (5) - July 2023
Province of North Holland - Municipality of Alkmaar (4) - August 2023
Province of Friesland - Municipality of Schiermonnikoog (3) - September 2023
Province of Utrecht - Municipality of Utrecht (2) - October 2023
Province of Zeeland - Municipality of Veere (1) - November 2023

North Holland municipalities and number of inhabitants per toilet

The most toilet-friendly municipality in the province of North Holland is the municipality of Alkmaar. With a total of 732 points, they managed to secure 1st place.

In order to paint a vivid and clear picture of the need for more toilets for the municipalities within the province of North Holland, we have broken down the number of inhabitants per available toilet for each municipality. We want to emphasize that visitors and tourists to the municipality are not included here at
.

For example, even in the best scoring municipality in this province (municipality of Alkmaar), a total of 1,335 residents have to share one public/open toilet, with a total of 83 toilets. In the least scoring municipality (municipality of Blaricum), there are no toilets. So there is plenty of room for improvement! The number of people who have to share a toilet is 1 of the 6 indicators on which the national ranking is based.
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‍Theranking of North Holland province

We have listed the full rankings of municipalities within the province of North Holland for you below and whether they have increased or decreased in the province compared to last year.

For a full view of the table, it is best to turn your mobile in landscape or look at it on a desktop.

Location & municipality	(+/-)	Toilets	Residents on 1 toilet
1. Alkmaar	0	83	1.335
2. Amsterdam	0	334	2.705
3. Gooi Lakes	1	43	1.369
4. Texel	1	25	547
5. Beverwijk	2	22	1.913
6. Velsen	3	45	1.522
7. Parent-Amstel	2	4	3.553
8. Enkhuizen	0	14	1.330
9. Opmeer	6	10	1.207
10. Zandvoort	4	15	1.140
11. Oostzaan	1	13	741
12. Uithoorn	1	14	2.216
13. Wijdemeren	6	14	1.750
14. Waterland	2	13	1.334
15. Wormerland	3	10	1.638
16. Haarlem	1	63	2.586
17. Uitgeest	6	6	2.261
18. Schagen	9	19	2.465
Den Helder 19.	1	24	2.347
20. Stede Broec	1	10	2.195
21. Hilversum	1	35	2.621
22. Heemstede	8	11	2.505
23. Haarlemmermeer	1	60	2.656
24. Horn	1	30	2.477
25. Medemblik	1	20	2.273
26. Hollands Kroon	10	16	3.049
27. Diemen	8	7	4.546
28. Landsmeer	0	6	1.927
29. Amstelveen	0	29	3.184
30. Castricum	4	13	2.789
31. Zaanstad	1	49	3.207
32. Edam-Volendam	1	13	2.805
33. Purmerend	7	23	4.010
34. Houses	2	3	13.646
35. Heiloo	6	6	4.070
36. Aalsmeer	3	8	4.057
37. Bergen (NH)	1	12	2.477
38. Dchterland	4	7	2.855
39. Dike and Worth (new)	-	34	2.579
40. Heemskerk	3	8	4.899
41. Laren	3	3	3.843
42. Koggenland	4	4	5.762
43. Bloemendaal	2	3	7.911
44. Blaricum	0	0

Room for improvement

Nationally, the municipality of Alkmaar, with 732 points , ranks 4th out of a total of 344 municipalities in the Netherlands at that time. Measured against the 1,000 points that can be achieved, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

With a few simple steps it is possible for every municipality to finish even higher in the national rankings in the coming year. There are more than enough achievable opportunities for all municipalities to become more toilet-friendly and thus not only more inclusive, but also more welcoming.
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These include:

1. Make toilets at municipal locations public for passersby.
2. Installation of public (seasonal) restrooms in high-traffic locations.
3. Local businesses are asking if their restrooms can be made public for passersby.
4. Making restrooms clearly findable by becoming a partner of HogeNood and notifying restrooms and keeping track of dates in the HogeNood CMS, placing signs at
   location leading to the restroom, and placing stickers at restroom locations themselves to provide additional designation.  
5. Keeping a sustainable toilet policy so that not only now, but also in the future, having sufficient hygienic toilets within the
   municipality are ensured.

Also become a toilet-friendly municipality? Then get in touch.

The complete ranking of toilet-friendly municipalities of the Netherlands 2022

For those who want to discover where their own municipality ended up, we have the complete ranking of all 344 for World Toilet Day 2022 also as an interesting article. In it you can read how the list came about and how many points each municipality managed to achieve in 2022. There is also the map which provides insight into the proximity of all notified toilets in the HogeNood app.

Monthly updates on each province via the newsletter

From now on, we will publish a monthly article focusing on one of our 12 provinces. Always know that you will be the first to be informed about the most toilet-friendly municipality of each province? Then sign up for the newsletter! That way you can assure yourself
that you will get the latest list in your inbox as soon as it is put online!

Note: the dates used in this article is a snapshot of World Toilet Day 2022, changes may have occurred in the interim.