10 Biggest Dutch Cities
The Netherlands is a small country with a relatively large population. It is officially comprised of 355 municipalities (gemeente). Only 8 Dutch cities have more than 200,000 residents.
One of the reasons the country developed this way has to do with its topography. The western half characterized by its flat terrain that sits at, or just below, sea level. A substantial percentage of the land in western part of the Netherlands was under water in the past, covered by ponds and marshy wetlands. The introduction of windmills for the purpose of draining these ‘polder’ lands helped make the land usable, but mostly for agricultural purposes due to the innate possibility of flooding. This has put limitations on the organic land expansion of most Dutch cities.
The single region of the Netherlands with the largest population is the ‘Randstad‘. It is a diamond-shaped area with Amsterdam at the northern point, Rotterdam on the south, The Hague on the west and Utrecht to the east. The population of the Randstad region is 8.1 million, almost half that of the entire country.
The 10 largest cities in the Netherlands based on population are…
RANK | CITY | POPULATION | PROVINCE |
---|---|---|---|
1 | AMSTERDAM | 905,000 | Noord-Holland |
2 | ROTTERDAM | 651,000 | Zuid-Holland |
3 | THE HAGUE | 549,000 | Zuid-Holland |
4 | UTRECHT | 359,000 | Utrecht |
5 | EINDHOVEN | 235,000 | Noord-Brabant |
6 | GRONINGEN | 233,000 | Groningen |
7 | TILBURG | 217,000 | Noord-Brabant |
8 | ALMERE | 208,000 | Noord-Holland |
9 | BREDA | 184,000 | Noord-Brabant |
10 | NIJMEGEN | 177,000 | Gelderland |
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