Rotterdam-West is a district of Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

. Rotterdam-West is not an administrative unit within the municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

. As a boundary for Rotterdam-West normally applies the railway Rotterdam-Schiedam to the north, the Westersingel on the east side, the Nieuwe Maas

Nieuwe Maas

The Nieuwe Maas distributary of the Rhine River, and a former distributary of the Maas River, in the Dutch province of South Holland. It runs from the confluence of the rivers Noord and Lek, and flows west through Rotterdam. It ends west of the city where it meets the Oude Maas , near Vlaardingen,...

 on the south side and the city Schiedam

Schiedam

Schiedam is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. It is part of the Rotterdam metropolitan area. The city is located west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen and south of Delft...

 in the west. Within these limits, more than 80,000 inhabitants live in an area of 10 km².

Most of Rotterdam-West is the territory of the former municipality Delfshaven

Delfshaven

Delfshaven is a borough of Rotterdam on the right bank of river Nieuwe Maas, in South Holland, the Netherlands. It was a separate municipality until 1886.The town of Delfshaven grew around the port of the city of Delft...

, which was annexed in 1886 by Rotterdam. The oldest part of Rotterdam-West is designed as a residential area of Rotterdam, which is Oude Westen

Oude Westen

Oude Westen is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands....

. It was built in late 19th century. With the construction of Oud-Mathenesse

Oud-Mathenesse

Oud-Mathenesse is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands....

 were the buildings before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 completed.

On March 31, 1943 were Bospolder and Tussendijken accidentally bombed

Rotterdam Blitz

The Rotterdam Blitz refers to the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the German Air Force on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender...

. In the fifties were destroyed parts of these neighborhoods rebuilt. Since the sixties, the composition of the population of Rotterdam-West changed dramatically. Currently, more than half of the inhabitants of Rotterdam-West are of foreign descent.