Municipalities of the Netherlands Nederlandse gemeenten (Dutch) | |
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Category | Municipality |
Location | Kingdom of the Netherlands |
Found in | Provinces |
Number | 342 + 3 (as of 1 January 2024) |
Possible types | |
Government |
Part of the Politics series |
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Since 1 January 2023, there have been 342 regular municipalities[1] (Dutch: gemeenten) and three special municipalities (Dutch: bijzondere gemeenten) in the Netherlands. The latter is the status of three of the six island territories that make up the Dutch Caribbean. Municipalities are the second-level administrative division, or public bodies (Dutch: openbare lichamen), 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 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.[2]
These municipalities come in a wide range of sizes, Westervoort is the smallest with a land area of 7.01 km2 (2.71 sq mi) and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of 522.7 km2 (201.8 sq mi). Schiermonnikoog is both the least populated, with 972 people, and the least densely populated municipality at 23/km2 (60/sq mi). Amsterdam has the highest population with 931,298 residents as of January 2024, whereas The Hague is the most densely populated with a density of 6,868/km2 (17,790/sq mi).
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