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The Netherlands is the 15th most densely populated country in the world, with 395 inhabitants per square kilometer (1,023 sq mi)—or 484 people per square kilometer (1,254/sq mi) if only the land area is counted, since 18.4% is water. Partly because of this it is also one of the most densely cabled countries in the world. Internet penetration is at 66.2% the 7th highest in the world. According to CBS Stat line, the official statistics bureau of the Netherlands, the ethnic origins of the citizens are very diverse. The vast majority of the population however still remains Dutch. They were: 80.8% Dutch, 5.6% other Western European (including 2.4% German), 2.4% Indonesian (Indo-European, Indo-Dutch, Moluccan), 2.2% Turks, 2.0% Surinamese, 1.9% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 4.2% other. However, this does not include the whole Kingdom of the Netherlands (such as the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, which have a non-European majority community), and only include the population in the Netherlands itself. The Netherlands also has a resident population of some 200,000 people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent (Indonesia being a former colony of the Netherlands). There are no cities with a population over 1 million in the Netherlands, but the 'four big cities' as they are called (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) can in many ways be regarded as one 'big city' agglomeration, the Randstad ('fringe city') with about 7 million inhabitants and an agricultural 'green heart' (het Groene Hart). This is illustrated by the idea to create a circular train network with a frequency and carriages similar to a metropolitan railway. The 5 largest cities are, in order of population: Eindhoven is the only of these cities that is not located in the Randstad. The population of the Netherlands is physically the tallest in the world, with an average height of 1.83 m (6 ft ) for adult males and 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) for adult females. A few centuries ago, it was among the shortest. The reasons for the increase in height are uncertain (CBS 2006).
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The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by practically all inhabitants. Another official language is Frisian, which is spoken in the northern province of Friesland and has a strong resemblance to Dutch, German and especially English. Frisian is co-official only in the province of Friesland, although with a few restrictions. Several dialects of Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch) are spoken in much of the north and east and are recognized by the Netherlands as regional languages according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. To the south, the Dutch language shifts into other varieties of Low Franconian and German, which may or may not be best classified as Dutch, most notably West Flemish. One of these, Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg, has been recognized as a minority language since 1997. There is a tradition of speaking foreign languages in the Netherlands: about 75% of the total population speaks English, 55–60% speaks German and about 17% speaks French. Note, though, that these percentages do not represent fluency, but basic knowledge. |
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According to the governmental statistics agency (CBS) 30% of the population consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant (predominantly Dutch Reformed) and 8% 'other denominations'. 42% consider themselves unaffiliated. Church attendance however is much lower than these figures may suggest: some 70% of the population 'rarely or never' visit a house of worship (be it a church, mosque, synagogue or temple), and even then it is mostly for occasions like weddings and baptisms. Most Protestants live in the northern provinces while the southern provinces, Noord-Brabant and Limburg, are mainly Roman Catholic, along with some regions in the east of the country like Twente in Overijssel. The largest part of the 'other denominations', at 920,000, are Muslim immigrants mainly living in the bigger cities, mostly from Morocco and Turkey, and their descendants. The other denominations also include some 200,000 Hindus (1.3% of the population), mostly descendants of indentured servants who migrated from India to the former Dutch colony of Surinam around 1900. During the nazi occupation in World War II about 100,000 out of 140,000 Dutch Jews were murdered in extermination camps. The Jewish population of the Netherlands today is estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000. They are mostly Liberal in practice, rather than Orthodox |
Netherlands Information: Inside
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