The most populous province isSouth Holland, with just over 3.8 million inhabitants as of January 2023[update], and also the most densely populated province with 1,410/km2 (3,700/sq mi).[1] With 391,124 inhabitants,Zeeland has the smallest population. However,Drenthe is the least densely populated province with 191/km2 (490/sq mi). In terms of area,Friesland is the largest province with a total area of 5,753 km2 (2,221 sq mi). If water is excluded,Gelderland is the largest province by land area at 4,960 km2 (1,915 sq mi). The province ofUtrecht is the smallest with a total area of 1,560 km2 (602 sq mi), whileFlevoland is the smallest by land area at 1,410 km2 (544 sq mi). In total about 10,000 people were employed by the provincial administrations in 2018.[2]
The provinces of the Netherlands are joined in theAssociation of Provinces of the Netherlands (IPO). This organisation promotes the common interests of the provinces in the national government of the Netherlands inThe Hague.
The government of each province consists of three major parts:
Theprovincial council (Provinciale Staten) 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.[3] Being a member is a part-time job. The main task of the provincial council is to scrutinise the work of the provincial government.
Theprovincial executive (Gedeputeerde Staten) is acollegial 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.
TheKing's Commissioner (Commissaris van de Koning) 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.
The members of the provincial council are elected every four years in direct elections. To a large extent, the samepolitical parties are enlisted in these elections in the national elections. The chosen provincial legislators elect the members of the nationalSenate within three months after the provincial elections. Theelections for the water boards take place on the same date as the provincial elections.
The last provincial elections were held in2023. The next provincial elections are scheduled for2027.
To a large extent, the provinces of the Netherlands are financed by the national government. Also, provinces have income from a part of theVehicle Excise Duty. Several provinces have made a large profit in the past from privatisingutility 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.[5]
^abAmsterdam is the nationalcapital of the Netherlands. Haarlem is, however, the capital of the province in which both Amsterdam and Haarlem are situated.
^Den Haag in Dutch. The Dutch parliament and the Dutch government are located in The Hague along with the Supreme Court and the Council of State.
The Republic's lands also includedDrenthe (one of the 17, but without the autonomous status of the others), and parts of theDuchy of Brabant,Duchy of Limburg andCounty of Flanders, which were considered to be "conquered lands" and were governed directly by theStates General, hence their nameGenerality Lands. They were calledStaats-Brabant,Staats-Limburg andStaats-Vlaanderen, meaning "governed by the States General".
Each of these "Netherlands" had a high degree ofautonomy, cooperating with each other mainly on defense and foreign relations, but otherwise keeping to their own affairs.
On 1 January 1796, under theBatavian 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 theUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also contained (then) South Brabant, a province now inBelgium. 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 wasFlevoland, consisting almost entirely ofreclaimed land, established on 1 January 1986.
During the Batavian Republic, the Netherlands was from 1798 to 1801 completely reorganised into eight new departments, most named after rivers, inspired by theFrench 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:
Zeeland, Southern Holland under the Meuse and Western Batavian Brabant
After only three years, following acoup 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 theKingdom of Holland replaced the republic to further French interests. It was during this administration that Holland was first split in two, with the department ofAmstelland to the north and that ofMaasland to the south.East Frisia, then as now inGermany, 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:
Map of the subdivisions of the Netherlands during French administration; East Frisia is not included in this later map
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 theUnited 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.[citation needed]
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 provinceNoordvleugelprovincie [nl]. Due to significant protest the plan was abandoned.[8]
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