Population Synthesizer
Opportunity area: Transparency
Builds a realistic digital population for any area of the Netherlands, person by person and household by household, from public statistics. Cities can then see who a measure affects, not just how many cars.
What problem are we trying to solve?
Traffic models count cars and trips. They don’t show the people behind them.
01
The figures don't connect
CBS shows age or car ownership per neighbourhood, but not how they combine, such as how many older people living alone have no car.
02
Who gets hit hardest?
It’s hard to know which residents a measure like a low-emission zone would affect most.
03
Two worlds, two datasets
Mobility and social teams work with different data, so transport poverty is easy to miss.
How does it work?
A profile for every resident
Age, gender, household, income, driving licence, cars at home, and work or study.
Built from public statistics
Combines CBS neighbourhood figures with the national travel survey (ODiN). No data can be traced back to real people.
A typical day for everyone
Linked to a traffic model, each person gets a day of trips by car, bus, bike or on foot.
How is it being tested?
In use in Almere, Amsterdam and Groningen. Amersfoort is the first new city to take it on.
TEST 1 · TRANSPORT POVERTY, ALMERE
Who has few ways to get around?
The map shows where residents have no more than one way to reach a shop, with a bike (left) and without (right).
TEST 2 · LOW-EMISSION ZONE, AMSTERDAM
Who would a bigger low-emission zone affect?
Amsterdam is using it to see which households own older diesel cars and what other options they have.
NEXT
First Amsterdam results are expected by December 2026. Zwolle is exploring the same approach. The tool can also build populations for future scenarios.
How does it fit into DMI?
CITY
Fairer measures that take every group of residents into account
APPLICATIONS
Population Synthesizer
VISUALISATION
Maps and charts for each group of residents, ready for GIS
PLATFORM
Works for any area layout (neighbourhoods, postcodes or the city’s own zones) and feeds DRO-Spectrum What-If, ShiftWijzer and Transport Equity
DATA
Public CBS statistics, national travel survey (ODiN), building data (BAG) and traffic model data
One shared population, so every DRO tool looks at the same people.
OPPORTUNITY AREA
Transparency
COLLABORATORS
Curious what this could mean for your city?
Schedule a demonstration to learn more about how DRO partners are co-developing this and other applications for better management of the public space.
digitaleregie.openbareruimte@amsterdam.nl