Total number of coffee shops in the Netherlands 2005-2022

In the last decade or so, the number of coffee shops in the Netherlands generally decreased, from just under 730 in 2005 to 565 in 2022. Roughly one third of these coffee shops were in the capital, Amsterdam. In 2018, Amsterdam had 168 coffee shops, more than any other municipality and more than the other large municipalities Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Tilburg combined.

Locations of coffee shops

   In 2018, there were nearly 400 municipalities in the Netherlands, but only 102 municipalities also had coffee shops located within their borders. The highest number of coffee shops could be found in municipalities with over 200,000 inhabitants, at nearly 292 coffee shops. By comparison, only five coffee shops were in municipalities not exceeding 20,000 citizens.

Purchase channels of cannabis

  The coffee shop is by far the most important purchase channel of cannabis in the Netherlands. A recent survey found that nearly 95 percent of recent cannabis users participating had acquired the drugs in a coffee shop. By comparison, just over ten percent recently received cannabis from a dealer at home, and only 2.4 percent bought cannabis from the street or park.