The twelve provinces

Each province has its own capital, an elected council and a King’s Commissioner appointed by the Crown. They are listed here roughly from north to south.

• Groningen capital Groningen

  A university city sets the pace of the north. Natural gas was pumped from the Groningen field from 1963 until 2024; it was closed because the extraction caused earthquakes.

• Friesland capital Leeuwarden

  The province has its own language, West Frisian, and calls itself Fryslân. Its flag carries seven red water-lily leaves. Lakes, sailing and the Elfstedentocht skating tour belong here.

• Drenthe capital Assen

  Heath, forest and 52 of the country’s 54 hunebedden: megalithic tombs built of huge boulders more than 5,000 years ago.

• North Holland capital Haarlem

  Amsterdam is the national capital, but the provincial one is Haarlem. At the Zaanse Schans you can still see windmills that sawed timber and ground spices, and the island of Texel lies off the northern tip.

• Flevoland capital Lelystad

  The youngest province, created in 1986 on land drained from the former Zuiderzee. Lelystad is named after Cornelis Lely, the engineer behind the Afsluitdijk.

• Overijssel capital Zwolle

  Giethoorn is a village where canals take the place of streets. Along the IJssel lie the old Hanseatic towns of Deventer, Kampen and Zwolle.

• Gelderland capital Arnhem

  The largest province by land area. Here are the Hoge Veluwe National Park, the Kröller-Müller Museum with its Van Gogh collection, and Nijmegen, which claims to be the oldest city in the country.

• Utrecht capital Utrecht

  The Dom Tower, 112 m high, is the tallest church tower in the country, and Utrecht Central is its busiest railway station. Dick Bruna drew the first Miffy book here in 1955.

• South Holland capital The Hague

  The most populous province. The Hague is the seat of government and of the International Court of Justice; Rotterdam has Europe’s biggest port; Delft has made its blue-and-white pottery since the 17th century.

• Zeeland capital Middelburg

  Islands and peninsulas in the delta of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, protected by the Delta Works. New Zealand is named after this province.

• North Brabant capital ’s-Hertogenbosch

  Eindhoven grew up around Philips, founded there in 1891. The painter Hieronymus Bosch took his name from ’s-Hertogenbosch, and Vincent van Gogh was born in the Brabant village of Zundert.

• Limburg capital Maastricht

  The only hilly part of the country, with its highest point, the Vaalserberg. The Maastricht Treaty that created the European Union was signed here in 1992.

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba in the Caribbean belong to the Netherlands but to no province: they are special municipalities.