Provinces of the Netherlands

There are twelve provinces (Template:Langx 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 Template:As of, and also the most densely populated province with Template:Cvt. With 391,124 inhabitants, Zeeland has the smallest population. However Drenthe is the least densely populated province with Template:Cvt. In terms of area, Friesland is the largest province with a total area of Template:Cvt. If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province by land area at Template:Cvt. The province of Utrecht is the smallest with a total area of Template:Cvt, while Flevoland is the smallest by land area at Template:Cvt. 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:

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

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

Flag	Location	Province	Capital	Largest municipality	King's Commissioner	Political party	MuniciTemplate:Shypalities (since 2023)	Total area		Land area		Water area		Population (1 January 2023)	Density Land		GRDP in million euros (2019)	GRDP per capita (€; 2019)
								km2	mi2	km2	mi2	km2	mi2		/km2	/mi2
File:Flag of Drenthe.svg	File:Drenthe in the Netherlands.svg	Drenthe	Assen	Emmen	Template:Sortname	PvdA	12	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Flevoland.svg	File:Flevoland in the Netherlands.svg	Flevoland	Lelystad	Almere	Template:Sortname	VVD	6	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Frisian flag.svg	File:Friesland in the Netherlands.svg	Friesland	Leeuwarden		Template:Sortname	VVD	18	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Gelderland.svg	File:Gelderland in the Netherlands.svg	Gelderland	Arnhem	Nijmegen	Daniel Wigboldus	CDA	51	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Groningen.svg	File:Groningen in the Netherlands.svg	Groningen	Groningen		Template:Sortname	CDA	10	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Limburg.svg	File:Limburg in the Netherlands.svg	Limburg	Maastricht		Template:Sortname	SP	31	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:North Brabant-Flag.svg	File:Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands.svg	North Brabant	's-HertogenboschTemplate:Efn-ua	Eindhoven	Template:Sortname	VVD	56	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of North Holland.svg	File:Noord-Holland in the Netherlands.svg	North Holland	HaarlemTemplate:Efn-ua	AmsterdamTemplate:Efn-ua	Template:Sortname	VVD	44	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Overijssel.svg	File:Overijssel in the Netherlands.svg	Overijssel	Zwolle	Enschede	Template:Sortname	CU	25	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of South Holland.svg	File:Zuid-Holland in the Netherlands.svg	South Holland	The HagueTemplate:Efn-ua	Rotterdam	Template:Sortname	CDA	50	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Utrecht (province)-Flag.svg	File:Utrecht in the Netherlands.svg	Utrecht	Utrecht		Template:Sortname	PvdA	26	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of Zeeland.svg	File:Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg	Zeeland	Middelburg	Terneuzen	Hugo de Jonge	CDA	13	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts
File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg	File:Map provinces Netherlands-en.svg	Netherlands	Amsterdam				342	41,543	Template:Cvt	33,647	Template:Cvt	7,896	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	529	Template:Cvt	Template:Nts	Template:Nts

Caribbean Netherlands

Special Municipality	Capital	Largest city	Area	Population (2019)	Density
Bonaire	Kralendijk		Template:Convert	20,104	Template:Convert
Sint Eustatius	Oranjestad		Template:Convert	3,138	Template:Convert
Saba	The Bottom		Template:Convert	1,915	Template:Convert
Total			Template:Convert	25,157	Template:Convert

Notes

Template:Notelist-ua

History

File:Flags of Dutch Provinces The Hague.jpg

Flags of the provinces near the Hofvijver in The Hague

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		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:

File:Netherlands during French administration 1810-1814.png

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

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 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.

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 Template:Ill. 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

External links

• Basic data for each province, with links to official province sites
• Template:Statoids
• Historical boundaries of provinces of the Netherlands