Netherlands Map with Provinces

The Netherlands has 12 provinces: Drenthe, Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg, North Brabant, North Holland, Overijssel, South Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland. All 12 appear on this map. The provinces are the level of government between the national state and about 340 municipalities. The count rose from 11 to 12 on 1 January 1986, when Flevoland became a province on land reclaimed from the former Zuiderzee. Each province has an elected council, the Provinciale Staten, and a King's Commissioner appointed by the Crown. On 1 January 2025 the 12 provinces had a combined population of 18,044,027 (Eurostat). Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba belong to the Netherlands but are not part of any province.

Friesland (Fryslân) is the largest Dutch province by total area at 5,753 km² (2,221 sq mi). A large part of that total is water, because the province includes part of the IJsselmeer, part of the Wadden Sea and the islands of Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. Measured by land alone, Gelderland is the largest province, with about 4,960 km² (1,915 sq mi) of land out of a 5,136 km² (1,983 sq mi) total, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The smallest province by total area is Utrecht, at 1,560 km² (602 sq mi). Flevoland has the least land, about 1,410 km² (544 sq mi), because open water covers much of its 2,412 km² (931 sq mi) total.

South Holland (Zuid-Holland) is the most populous province of the Netherlands, with 3,863,397 residents on 1 January 2025 according to Eurostat. That is 21.4% of the 18,044,027 people living in the 12 provinces. Rotterdam, the country's main port city, is in South Holland. So is The Hague, which is both the seat of the Dutch government and the provincial capital. Leiden, Delft and Dordrecht are also in the province. North Holland ranks second with 2,992,016 residents, followed by North Brabant with 2,664,047. Zeeland, in the southwestern delta of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, has the smallest population of any province, 392,969 in the 2025 Eurostat figures.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands under the Dutch Constitution, and it is in the province of North Holland. The Hague, in South Holland, is where the government, the parliament (States General), the Supreme Court and most foreign embassies are located. The Hague is also the provincial capital of South Holland. Amsterdam is not the capital of its own province. That role belongs to Haarlem, west of Amsterdam. As a result, the country's two national centers are in its two most populous provinces. On 1 January 2025, South Holland had 3,863,397 residents and North Holland had 2,992,016 (Eurostat). Dutch monarchs are inaugurated in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk.

Holland is a region in the western Netherlands, not the name of the whole country. Today it consists of two of the 12 provinces, North Holland and South Holland. They formed a single province of Holland until it was split in 1840. The two provinces include Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Haarlem and Leiden. Their combined population was 6,855,413 on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat), about 38% of the national total of 18,044,027. Holland led Dutch trade and politics for centuries, so the name came into wide use abroad for the whole country. Since January 2020, the Dutch government has used only "the Netherlands" in official international communication.

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are part of the Netherlands, but they are not provinces and do not appear on this map. Since 10 October 2010, the three Caribbean islands have been public bodies, usually called special municipalities, and together they are known as the Caribbean Netherlands. They report directly to the national government instead of a province. They use the US dollar and are on Atlantic Standard Time (UTC-4). Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are different. They are separate constituent countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The 12 provinces on this map cover only the European Netherlands, and the Eurostat total of 18,044,027 residents (2025) counts only that area.

Friesland and Fryslân are two names for the same province in the northern Netherlands. Fryslân is the West Frisian spelling and has been the province's official name since 1 January 1997. This map uses that form in its region titles. West Frisian is an official language in the province alongside Dutch. The provincial capital is Leeuwarden, which is Ljouwert in Frisian. Fryslân had 664,222 residents on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat), making it 8th of the 12 provinces by population. With 5,753 km² (2,221 sq mi), water included, it is the largest province by total area. English and Dutch speakers still commonly use the name Friesland.

Flevoland is the newest province of the Netherlands. It was established on 1 January 1986. Nearly all of its land was reclaimed from the Zuiderzee in the 20th century. The Noordoostpolder was drained in 1942, Eastern Flevoland in 1957 and Southern Flevoland in 1968. Lelystad is the provincial capital, and Almere is the largest city. Flevoland had the fastest growth of any province over the last decade. Its population rose from 401,791 in 2015 to 456,395 on 1 January 2025 (Eurostat), an increase of 13.6%. Flevoland also has the smallest land area of any province, about 1,410 km² (544 sq mi), because the Markermeer and IJsselmeer cover much of its 2,412 km² (931 sq mi) total.

The editor on this page runs in your browser and requires no sign-up. To mark sales territories or survey areas, pick a province and choose its color. To map numbers, enter one value for each of the 12 provinces and the editor builds a choropleth with a matching legend. You can place pins on specific locations such as Schiphol, the Port of Rotterdam or a branch office. Free exports are standard PNG files with a small Ultimaps credit. PDF, SVG and high-resolution PNG exports require the Pro plan.