Provinces of the Netherlands

Provinces of the Netherlands Provincies van Nederland  (Dutch)
Map of the Netherlands, linking to the province articles
Category	Unitary unit
Location	Netherlands
Number	12 provinces
Populations	Minimum: Zeeland, 381,568 Maximum: South Holland, 3,650,222
Areas	Minimum (including water): Utrecht, 1,450 km2 (559 sq mi) Maximum (including water): Friesland, 5,700 km2 (2,220 sq mi)
Government	Provincial-Executive
Subdivisions	Municipalities

There are currently twelve provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch: provincies van Nederland), representing the administrative layer between the national government and the local municipalities, with responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance.

The most populous province is South Holland, with over 3.65 million inhabitants in 2009. With approximately 381,500 inhabitants, Zeeland has the smallest population. In terms of area, Friesland is the largest province with a total area of 5,749 km². If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province in terms of area at 4,972 km². Utrecht is the smallest at 1,385 km². In total about 13,000 people were employed by the provincial administrations in 2009.^[1]

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 and within the European Union in Brussels.

Politics and governance

The government of each province consists of three major parts:

• The States-Provincial (Provinciale Staten) is the provincial parliament elected every four years. The number of members varies between 39 and 55 (as of 2015), depending on the number of inhabitants of the province.^[2] Being a member is a part-time job. The main task of the States-Provincial is to scrutinise the work of the provincial government.
• The Provincial-Executive (Gedeputeerde Staten) is a college elected from among the members of the States-Provincial and 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 (Commissaris van de Koning) is a single person appointed by the Crown who presides over the States-Provincial 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

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The members of the States-Provincial 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 three provincial elections were held in 2007, 2011 and in 2015.

Competencies

The provinces of the Netherlands have 7 core tasks:^[3]

1. Sustainable spatial development, including water management.
2. Environment, energy and climate
3. Vital countryside
4. Regional accessibility and regional public transport
5. Regional economy
6. Cultural infrastructure and preservation
7. Quality of public administration

Geography

The 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, the Caribbean Netherlands that are not part of any province. Previously these were part of public bodies (openbare lichamen).

List of provinces

Province	Arms	Capital	Largest municipality	King's Commissioner	Total area[4]		Land area		Population [upper-alpha 1][5]	Density	Density excluding water	GRP in million euros (2016)[6]	GRP per capita in euros (2016)
					km2	mi2	km2	mi2
Drenthe		Assen	Emmen	Jetta Klijnsma	2,680	1,035	2,641	1,020	7005491792000000000♠491,792	6996181999999999999♠182/km2 (470/sq mi)	6996185000000000000♠185/km2 (480/sq mi)	14,119	28,802
Flevoland		Lelystad	Almere	Leen Verbeek	2,412	931	1,418	547	7005407818000000000♠407,818	6996166000000000000♠166/km2 (430/sq mi)	6996285000000000000♠285/km2 (740/sq mi)	12,959	31,923
Friesland[upper-alpha 2]		Leeuwarden		Arno Brok	5,749	2,220	3,342	1,290	7005646874000000000♠646,874	6996112000000000000♠112/km2 (290/sq mi)	6996193000000000000♠193/km2 (500/sq mi)	18,581	28,743
Gelderland		Arnhem	Nijmegen	Clemens Cornielje	5,136	1,983	4,972	1,920	7006204790100000000♠2,047,901	6996392999999999999♠393/km2 (1,020/sq mi)	6996408999999999999♠409/km2 (1,060/sq mi)	70,789	34,673
Groningen[upper-alpha 3]		Groningen		René Paas	2,960	1,143	2,333	901	7005583581000000000♠583,581	6996197000000000000♠197/km2 (510/sq mi)	6996250000000000000♠250/km2 (650/sq mi)	24,102	41,295
Limburg		Maastricht		Theo Bovens	2,209	853	2,151	830	7006111754600000000♠1,117,546	6996508000000000000♠508/km2 (1,320/sq mi)	6996518999999999999♠519/km2 (1,340/sq mi)	39,329	35,213
North Brabant		's-Hertogenbosch[upper-alpha 4]	Eindhoven	Wim van de Donk	5,082	1,962	4,916	1,898	7006251253100000000♠2,512,531	6996488000000000000♠488/km2 (1,260/sq mi)	6996506999999999999♠507/km2 (1,310/sq mi)	107,888	43,058
North Holland		Haarlem[upper-alpha 5]	Amsterdam[upper-alpha 5]	Johan Remkes	4,091	1,580	2,671	1,031	7006280948300000000♠2,809,483	6996670000000000000♠670/km2 (1,700/sq mi)	6997103900000000000♠1,039/km2 (2,690/sq mi)	148,243	52,998
Overijssel		Zwolle	Enschede	Boele Staal	3,421	1,321	3,326	1,284	7006114768700000000♠1,147,687	6996332999999999999♠333/km2 (860/sq mi)	6996343999999999999♠344/km2 (890/sq mi)	39,059	34,083
South Holland		The Hague[upper-alpha 6]	Rotterdam	Jaap Smit	3,418	1,320	2,815	1,087	7006365022200000000♠3,650,222	6997104600000000000♠1,046/km2 (2,710/sq mi)	6997128200000000000♠1,282/km2 (3,320/sq mi)	150,675	41,437
Utrecht		Utrecht		Willibrord van Beek	1,449	560	1,385	535	7006128450400000000♠1,284,504	6996864000000000000♠864/km2 (2,240/sq mi)	6996915999999999999♠916/km2 (2,370/sq mi)	61,452	48,045
Zeeland		Middelburg	Terneuzen	Han Polman	2,933	1,133	1,787	690	7005381568000000000♠381,568	6996129999999999999♠130/km2 (340/sq mi)	6996213000000000000♠213/km2 (550/sq mi)	12,242	32,097

History

Flags of the provinces near the Hofvijver in The Hague

Dutch provinces by nominal GRP in 2016

Dutch provinces by nominal GRP per capita in 2016

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 Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijssel and Groningen.

The Republic's lands also included Drenthe (one of the 17, but without the autonomous status of the others), and parts of the Duchy of Brabant, Duchy of Limburg and County of Flanders, which were considered to be "conquered lands" and were governed directly by the States General, hence their name Generality Lands. They were called Staats-Brabant, Staats-Limburg and Staats-Vlaanderen, meaning "governed by the States General". 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	Departement van de Eems	Leeuwarden	Northern Friesland, Groningen
Department of the Old IJssel	Departement van de Oude IJssel	Zwolle	Southern Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Northern Gelderland
Department of the Rhine	Departement van de Rijn	Arnhem	Central Gelderland, Eastern Utrecht
Department of the Amstel	Departement van de Amstel	Amsterdam	Area around Amsterdam
Department of Texel	Departement van Texel	Alkmaar	Northern Holland minus Amsterdam, Northwestern Utrecht
Department of the Delft	Departement van de Delft	Delft	Southern Holland up to the Meuse, Southwestern Utrecht
Department of the Dommel	Departement van de Dommel	's-Hertogenbosch	Eastern Batavian Brabant, Southern Gelderland
Department of the Scheldt and Meuse	Departement van de Schelde en Maas	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 Amstelland to the north and that of Maasland 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 together. 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:

Map of the subdivisions of the Netherlands during French administration; eastern Friesland is not included in this later map

French departments in the Netherlands

English name	French name	Dutch name	Modern territory
Department of the Zuiderzee	Département du Zuyderzée	Departement van de Zuiderzee	North Holland and Utrecht
Department of the Mouths of the Meuse	Département des Bouches-de-la-Meuse	Departement van de Monden van de Maas	South Holland
Department of the Mouths of the Scheldt	Département des Bouches-de-l'Escaut	Departement van de Monden van de Schelde	Zeeland
Department of the Two Nethes	Département des Deux-Nèthes	Departement van de Twee Nethen	Western North Brabant and Antwerp
Department of the Mouths of the Rhine	Département des Bouches-du-Rhin	Departement van de Monden van de Rijn	Eastern North Brabant and southern Gelderland
Department of the Upper IJssel	Département de l'Yssel-Supérieur	Departement van de Boven IJssel	Northern Gelderland
Department of the Mouths of the IJssel	Département des Bouches-de-l'Yssel	Departement van de Monden van de IJssel	Overijssel
Department of Frisia	Département de la Frise	Departement Friesland	Friesland
Department of the Western Ems	Département de l'Ems-Occidental	Departement van de Wester Eems	Groningen and Drenthe
Department of the Eastern Ems	Département de l'Ems-Oriental	Departement van de Ooster Eems	Eastern Friesland

With the defeat and withdrawal of the French in 1813, the old provinces and their names were re-established, Holland was reunited and East-Frisia went its separate way. The 17 provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands were for a significant part based on the former French departments and their borders, in particular in what would later become Belgium.^[9]

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 (Noordvleugelprovincie). Due to significant protest the plan was abandoned.^[10]

See also

• ISO 3166-2:NL
• Table of administrative divisions by country
• Flags of 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
• "Provinces of the Netherlands". Statoids.
• Historical boundaries of provinces of the Netherlands