Provinces of the Netherlands

A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the local municipalities, having the responsibility for matters of subnational or regional importance. The government of each province consists of three major parts: the Provinciale Staten which is the provincial parliament elected every four years; the Gedeputeerde Staten, a college elected from among the members of the Provinciale Staten and charged with most executive tasks; and the Commissaris van de Koning, who is appointed by the Crown and presides over the Gedeputeerde Staten.

List of provinces

The modern Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces (provincies in Dutch) and three overseas public bodies (openbare lichamen) that are not part of any province. The twelve provinces are listed below.

Flag	Arms	Province	Capital	Largest city	King's Commissioner	Area (km²)	Population	Density (per km²)
		Drenthe	Assen	Assen	Jacques Tichelaar	2,652	489,918	182
	Coat of arms of Flevoland	Flevoland	Lelystad	Almere	Leen Verbeek	1,426	394,758	250
		Friesland (West Frisian: Fryslân)	Leeuwarden	Leeuwarden	John Jorritsma	3,361	646,305	191
		Gelderland	Arnhem	Nijmegen	Clemens Cornielje	4,995	1,999,135	394
		Groningen (Gronings: Grönnen; West Frisian: Grinslân)	Groningen	Groningen	Max van den Berg	2,344	574,042	246
		Limburg	Maastricht	Maastricht	Theo Bovens (called governor in Limburg)	2,167	1,131,938	527
		North Brabant (Noord-Brabant)	's-Hertogenbosch[A]	Eindhoven	Wim van de Donk	4,938	2,415,946	487
		North Holland (Noord-Holland)	Haarlem[B]	Amsterdam[C]	Johan Remkes	2,660	2,724,300	1,020
		Overijssel	Zwolle	Enschede	Ank Bijleveld	3,337	1,113,529	331
		South Holland (Zuid-Holland)	The Hague[D]	Rotterdam	Jan Franssen	2,860	3,528,324	1,207
		Utrecht	Utrecht	Utrecht	Roel Robbertsen	1,356	1,180,039	855
		Zeeland	Middelburg	Middelburg	Han Polman	1,792	380,186	211

1. ^{^} Also, though not officially, abbreviated as Den Bosch.
2. ^{^} Even though the country's capital Amsterdam lies in North Holland, Haarlem is the capital city of the province.
3. ^{^} Amsterdam is the constitutional national capital of the Netherlands.
4. ^{^} Dutch: Den Haag, officially also: 's-Gravenhage. The Dutch parliament and the Dutch government have been situated in The Hague since 1588, along with the Supreme Court and the Council of State.

Public bodies

The three public bodies of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba became parts of the Netherlands proper on October 10, 2010, but are not part of any province.

Flag	Arms	Special municipality	Capital	Largest city	Lieutenant Governor	Area (km²)	Population	Density (per km²)
		Bonaire (Papiamento: Boneiru)	Kralendijk	Kralendijk	Lydia Emerencia	294	15,414	52
		Sint Eustatius	Oranjestad	Oranjestad	Gerald Berkel	21	3,300	157
		Saba	The Bottom	The Bottom	Jonathan Johnson	13	2,000	154

History

Flags of the provinces at the Binnenhof Hofvijver, 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 formed the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in the 17th century, 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 Brabant, Limburg and Flanders, which were considered to be "conquered lands" and were governed directly by the Staten-Generaal, the parliament, hence their name Generality Lands. They were called Staats-Brabant, Staats-Limburg and Staats-Vlaanderen, meaning "state-owned". 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 January 1, 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, 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 original single 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 member was to be Flevoland, a province consisting almost entirely of reclaimed land, established on January 1, 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	Contained the territory of
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	The 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	The eastern part of Batavian Brabant, southern Gelderland
Department of the Scheldt and Meuse	Departement van de Schelde en Maas	Middelburg	Zeeland, Holland south of the Meuse and the western part of Batavian Brabant

After only three years, following a coup d'etat, 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.

Map of the subdivisions of the Netherlands during French administration. Note that East Frisia is not included in this (later) map.

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 corresponded for the most part to:

French Departments in the Netherlands

English name	French name	Dutch name	Modern province(s)
Department of the Zuiderzee	Département du Zuyderzée	Departement van de Zuiderzee	North Holland & 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 & Antwerp
Department of the Mouths of the Rhine	Département des Bouches-du-Rhin	Departement van de Monden van de Rijn	Eastern North Brabant & 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 & Drenthe
Department of the Eastern Ems	Département de l'Ems-Oriental	Departement van de Ooster Eems	(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.

See also

• ISO 3166-2:NL
• Table of administrative divisions by country
• Ranked list of Dutch provinces
• Flags of provinces of the Netherlands
• Coats of arms of provinces of the Netherlands
• Provincial politics in the Netherlands

External links

• Population and area figures
• Basic data for each province, with links to official province sites
• "Provinces of the Netherlands". Statoids.
• Municipality data by province