There are twelve provinces ( or ; sing. ) of the Netherlands representing the administrative layer between the national government and the local governments, with responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance.
The most populous province is South Holland, with just over 3.8 million inhabitants , and also the most densely populated province with . With 391,124 inhabitants, Zeeland has the smallest population. However, Drenthe is the least densely populated province with . In terms of area, Friesland is the largest province with a total area of . If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province by land area at . The province of Utrecht is the smallest with a total area of , while Flevoland is the smallest by land area at . In total about 10,000 people were employed by the provincial administrations in 2018.
The provinces of the Netherlands are joined in the Association of Provinces of the Netherlands (IPO). This organisation promotes the common interests of the provinces in the national government of the Netherlands in The Hague.
Politics and governance
The government of each province consists of three major parts:
The provincial council () is the provincial parliament elected every four years. The number of members varies between 39 and 55 (since 2015), depending on the number of inhabitants of the province. Being a member is a part-time job. The main task of the provincial council is to scrutinise the work of the provincial government. The provincial executive () is a collegial body supported by a majority in the provincial council charged with most executive tasks. Each province has between three and seven deputies, each having their own portfolio. The task of the Provincial Executive is the overall management of the province. The king's commissioner () is a single person appointed by the Crown who presides over the provincial council as well as over the provincial executive. The commissioner is appointed for a term of six years, after which reappointment for another term is possible.
Elections
The members of the provincial council are elected every four years in direct elections. To a large extent, the same political parties are enlisted in these elections in the national elections. The chosen provincial legislators elect the members of the national Senate within three months after the provincial elections. The elections for the water boards take place on the same date as the provincial elections.
The last provincial elections were held in 2023. The next provincial elections are scheduled for 2027.
Competencies The provinces of the Netherlands have seven core tasks:
Sustainable spatial development, including water management Environment, energy and climate Vital countryside Regional accessibility and regional public transport Regional economy Cultural infrastructure and preservation Quality of public administration
Financing To a large extent, the provinces of the Netherlands are financed by the national government. Also, provinces have income from a part of the Vehicle Excise Duty. Several provinces have made a large profit in the past from privatising utility companies originally owned or partly owned by the provinces. Essent, which was originally owned by six provinces and more than a hundred municipalities, was sold for around 9.3 billion euros.
List The constituent country of the Netherlands, being the largest part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is divided into twelve provinces (provincies in Dutch) and three overseas special municipalities; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba in the Caribbean Netherlands that are not part of any province. Previously these were part of public bodies (openbare lichamen).
European Netherlands FlagLocation Province Capital Largestmunicipality King'sCommissioner Politicalparty Municipalities <br/ >(since 2023) Total area Land area Water area Population (1 January 2023) Density Land GRDP inmillion euros(2019) GRDP percapita (€; 2019)km2mi2km2mi2km2mi2/km2/mi2DrentheAssenEmmenCDA FlevolandLelystadAlmereVVD Friesland LeeuwardenVVD GelderlandArnhemNijmegenDaniel WigboldusCDA Groningen GroningenCDA Limburg MaastrichtSP North BrabantEindhovenVVD North HollandHaarlemVVD OverijsselZwolleEnschedeCU South HollandRotterdamVVD Utrecht UtrechtPvdA ZeelandMiddelburgTerneuzenHugo de JongeCDA NetherlandsAmsterdam 342 41,543 33,647 7,896 529
Caribbean Netherlands
Flag Special Municipality Capital Largest city Area Population(2019) Density BonaireKralendijk 20,104 Sint EustatiusOranjestad 3,138 SabaThe Bottom 1,915 Total 25,157
Notes
History
Nearly all Dutch provinces can trace their origin to a medieval county or duchy, as can the provinces of regions in Belgium. Their status changed when they came under a single ruler who centralised their administration, reducing their powers. There were 17 in total: from these unified Netherlands, seven northern provinces from 1588 formed the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, namely three counties of Holland and Zeeland, the duchy of Gelderland, and the Lordships of Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel and Groningen.
The Republic also included the country of Drenthe, which retained its own provincial institutions but was not represented in the States General, as well as several territories governed directly by the States General as Generality Lands. These included Staats-Brabant, comprising much of the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant and lying largely in the present-day province of North Brabant; Staats-Vlaanderen, comprising the northern part of the County of Flanders and corresponding largely to present-day Zeelandic Flanders; and Staats-Overmaas, consisting of the State-held portions of the Lands of Valkenburg, Dalhem and 's-Hertogenrade, mostly within present-day Dutch Limburg. Staats-Overmaas was distinct from the historic Duchy of Limburg, which remained in the Spanish and later Austrian Netherlands which became present day Belgium. From 1715, the Generality Lands also included Staats-Opper-Gelre, formed from part of Upper Guelders and centred on Venlo, which likewise forms part of the present-day province of Dutch Limburg.
Each of these "Netherlands" had a high degree of autonomy, cooperating with each other mainly on defense and foreign relations, but otherwise keeping to their own affairs.
On 1 January 1796, under the Batavian Republic, Drenthe and Staats-Brabant became the eighth and ninth provinces of the Netherlands. The latter, which had been known as Bataafs Brabant (English: Batavian Brabant), changed its name to Noord-Brabant, North Brabant, in 1815 when it became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also contained (then) South Brabant, a province now in Belgium. This new unified state featured the provinces in their modern form, as non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state, and again numbering 17, though they were not all the same as the 16th century ones. In 1839, following the separation of Belgium, the province of Limburg was divided between the two countries, each now having a province called Limburg. A year later, Holland, the largest and most populous of the Dutch provinces, was also split into two provinces, for a total of 11. The 12th province to be created was Flevoland, consisting almost entirely of reclaimed land, established on 1 January 1986.
French period During the Batavian Republic, the Netherlands was from 1798 to 1801 completely reorganised into eight new departments, most named after rivers, inspired by the French revolutionary example, in an attempt to do away with the old semi-autonomous status of the provinces. They are listed below, with their capitals and the territory of the former provinces that they mostly incorporated:
+ Batavian Departments English name Dutch name Capital Territory contained Department of the Ems Leeuwarden Northern Friesland, Groningen Department of the Old IJssel Zwolle Southern Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Northern Gelderland Department of the Rhine Arnhem Central Gelderland, Eastern Utrecht Department of the Amstel Amsterdam Area around Amsterdam Department of Texel Alkmaar Northern Holland minus Amsterdam, Northwestern Utrecht Department of the Delft Delft Southern Holland up to the Meuse, Southwestern Utrecht Department of the Dommel 's-Hertogenbosch Eastern Batavian Brabant, Southern Gelderland Department of the Scheldt and Meuse Middelburg Zeeland, Southern Holland under the Meuse and Western Batavian Brabant
After only three years, following a coup d'état, the borders of the former provinces were restored, though not their autonomous status. They were now also called "departments" and Drenthe was added to Overijssel. In 1806 the Kingdom of Holland replaced the republic to further French interests. It was during this administration that Holland was first split in two, with the department of to the north and that of to the south. East Frisia, then as now in Germany, was added to the kingdom as a department in 1807 and Drenthe split off again making a total of 11 departments.
When the Netherlands finally did become fully part of France in 1810, the departments of the kingdom and their borders were largely maintained, with some joined. They were however nearly all renamed, again mainly after rivers, though the names differed from their Batavian counterparts. Following are their names and the modern day province they mostly correspond to:
+ French departments in the Netherlands English name French name Dutch name Modern territory Department of the Zuiderzee North Holland and Utrecht Department of the Mouths of the Meuse South Holland Department of the Mouths of the Scheldt Zeeland Department of the Two Nethes Western North Brabant and Antwerp Department of the Mouths of the Rhine Eastern North Brabant and southern Gelderland Department of the Upper IJssel Northern Gelderland Department of the Mouths of the IJssel Overijssel Department of Frisia Friesland Department of the Western Ems Groningen and Drenthe Department of the Eastern Ems East Frisia
With the end of French rule in 1813–1814, the Northern Netherlands largely returned to their pre-revolutionary provincial names and divisions, while East Frisia, which had formed part of the Kingdom of Holland and subsequently France, was assigned to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1815. The seventeen provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands were nevertheless not simply a restoration of the historic Seventeen Provinces. The Constitution of 1815 explicitly preserved the boundaries of the former French departments in the Southern Netherlands, but under restored historical names: the departments of Dyle, Scheldt, Lys, Jemmape and Deux-Nèthes returned respectively to the provinces of South Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders, Hainaut and Antwerp, while Limburg, Liège and Namur were likewise formed from French departments or parts of them.
There is continuous discussion within the Netherlands about the future of the provinces. Before 2014, the national government was planning to merge the provinces Flevoland, North Holland and Utrecht into a single province . Due to significant protest the plan was abandoned.
See also ISO 3166-2:NL Table of administrative divisions by country Flags of the provinces of the Netherlands Coats of arms of provinces of the Netherlands List of provinces of the Netherlands by Human Development Index
References
External links Basic data for each province, with links to official province sites
Historical boundaries of provinces of the Netherlands