The Netherlands has several levels of

administrative subdivisions Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

. The first level of subdivision consists of 12 provinces. The second level of subdivision consists of 342 municipalities. The country is also subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board (''waterschap'' or ''hoogheemraadschap''), each having authority in matters concerning water management. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.

Group of provinces

The Group of provinces ( nl, landsdeel) is a European subdivision of the Netherlands. It meets the needs of Eurostat, the European statistical institute, which has defined a classification of territorial units for statistics. These groups correspond to the first European statistical level (

NUTS 1 The Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS, for the French ) is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union. There ...

). There are four of them: Northern Netherlands, Eastern Netherlands, Western Netherlands and Southern Netherlands.

Provinces

COROP regions

A COROP region is a division of the Netherlands for statistical purposes, used by

Statistics Netherlands Statistics Netherlands, founded in 1899, is a Dutch governmental institution that gathers statistical information about the Netherlands. In Dutch it is known as the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (''Central Agency for Statistics''), often ...

, among others. The Dutch abbreviation stands for , literally the Coordination Commission Regional Research Programme. These divisions are also used in the EU designation as

NUTS 3 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS (french: Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003 ...

Water boards

Typically, a water board's territory is made up of one or more

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

s or watersheds. The territory of a water board generally covers several municipalities and may even include areas in two or more provinces. As of 2021, there are 21 water boards in The Netherlands. # Waterschap

Noorderzijlvest Waterschap Noorderzijlvest (WNZV) is a Dutch regional water authority covering the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe. It has its seat in the city of Groningen. It is responsible for water management, water quality and sewage water t ...

(

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, Friesland and

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

) # Wetterskip Fryslân ( Friesland and

) # Waterschap Hunze en Aa's (

and

) # Waterschap Drents Overijsselse Delta (

and

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

) # Waterschap Vechtstromen (

and

) # Waterschap Vallei en Veluwe ( Utrecht and Gelderland) # Waterschap Rijn en IJssel ( Gelderland) # Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden ( Utrecht and

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

) # Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht (

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

, Utrecht and

) # Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier (

) # Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland (

and

) #

Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland The Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland is a Dutch waterboard, which is responsible for water management. It covers the municipalities of Delft, Midden-Delfland and The Hague, and is fully located in the province of South Holland. The organization w ...

(

) # Hoogheemraadschap van Schieland en de Krimpenerwaard (

) # Waterschap Rivierenland (

, Gelderland, Utrecht and North Brabant) #

Waterschap Hollandse Delta Waterschap Hollandse Delta (WSHD) is a Dutch regional water authority covering the south of South Holland with its seat in Ridderkerk. The area it encompasses includes Rotterdam (south of the Nieuwe Maas) as well as the (former) islands Goeree-Ove ...

(

) # Waterschap Scheldestromen ( Zeeland) # Waterschap Brabantse Delta ( North Brabant) # Waterschap De Dommel ( North Brabant) # Waterschap Aa en Maas ( North Brabant) # Waterschap Limburg ( Limburg) # Waterschap Zuiderzeeland (

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

)

Municipalities

Since 1 January 2023, there have been 342 municipalities ( nl, gemeenten). Municipalities are the second-level administrative division in the Netherlands and are subdivisions of their respective provinces. Their duties are delegated to them by the central government and they are ruled by a municipal council that is elected every four years. Municipal

mergers Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

have reduced the total number of municipalities by two-thirds since the first official boundaries were created in the mid 19th century. Municipalities themselves are informally subdivided into districts and neighbourhoods for administrative and statistical purposes. These municipalities come in a wide range of sizes,

Westervoort Westervoort () is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. The town has two rivers inside its borders, the Rhine and the IJssel. It is a commuter town closely linked to Arnhem, the capital of Gelderland, which is situated on the west b ...

is the smallest with a land area of and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of .

Schiermonnikoog Schiermonnikoog (; fry, ) is an island, a municipality and national park in the Northern Netherlands. Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, and is part of the province of Friesland. It is situated between the islands of Ameland a ...

is both the least populated and the least densely populated municipality at . Amsterdam has the highest population with over 900,000 residents (31 March 2022), whereas The Hague is the most densely populated with a density of .

References

{{reflist Netherlands