Provinces form the administrative layer between the government in The Hague and the municipalities. You can see that in what the provinces are doing. Sometimes provinces are conduits, often coordinating affairs between municipalities in the region. Matters that concern the entire province are handled by the province itself. Provincial duties and authorities lie in various fields. A special task is to elect members of the Senate.
The Netherlands has twelve provinces, most of which have existed for a long time: Groningen, Fryslân, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland, Flevoland, Utrecht, North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg. The youngest province is Flevoland which was founded in 1986. Each province has a capital city. The main feature of this capital city is that the provincial houses are located there. It is the building where the Provincial Council and Provincial Executive meet and where many provincial officials work.
In this document, we focus on questions of what provinces do, how provinces are organized, and how citizens can influence provincial policies.
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Further information
Purchase or download a brochure Who rules the province? – (Oct 2017)
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