Netherlands Country Overview
Where is Netherlands located? The Netherlands is a small country in western Europe. The parliamentary monarchy is part of the Benelux countries alongside Belgium and Luxembourg. Some Caribbean islands still belong to Dutch territory today. On the time zone map, Holland is located in a world time zone called “Central European Time”. Here the standard time shift to the coordinated world clock is 1 hour (UTC+1). In the summer, this standard difference increases to 2 hours, as the clock then changes to daylight saving time.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Netherlands is 17,280,397, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 17,280,397 |
| Population growth rate | 0.37% |
| Birth rate | 10.90 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 81.01 years |
| Men life expectancy | 78.93 years |
| Women life expectancy | 83.21 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 16.28% |
| 15-64 years | 64.62% |
| 65 years and above | 19.10% |
| Median age | 42.30 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.98 |
| Population density | 415.96 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 65.80% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 78.6% Dutch, 2.4% Turks, 2.2% Indonesians, 2.2% Moroccans, 2.1 Surinamese, 0.8% Bonairian, Saba Islander, Sint Eustatian, others 5.9%; Proportion of foreigners 2015: 4.6% | |
| Religions | |
| Catholics (Roman Catholic) 31%, Protestants 21%, Muslims 4.4%, Others 3.6%, Without religious affiliation 40% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.934 |
| HDI ranking | 10th out of 194 |
People in Netherlands
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with around 400 residents per square kilometer. For comparison: In Germany there are 231 residents per square kilometer. In the course of history, various groups of people from all over the world have immigrated to the Netherlands.
Some come from neighboring or nearby countries such as Germany, Belgium or England. In addition, people from Indonesia, Morocco and Suriname also live in the Netherlands. Many immigrants come from former crown colonies in the Netherlands, for example from the Caribbean.
Languages in Netherlands
The country’s official language is Dutch. This language belongs to the West Germanic languages. There are many similarities to Low German and English. There are also dialects in the various regions of the country, for example South Dutch.
Dutch is also an official language on the Dutch islands in the Caribbean. Papiamento and English are also spoken there. Many people on the Dutch mainland also speak English, especially in international cities like Amsterdam or The Hague.
Religions in Netherlands
The residents of the Netherlands are not very religious and hardly attached to a church. More than half of the entire population do not belong to any religious community. Most of the other half are Christian. Within Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church is the denomination with the greatest popularity. Out of 100 Dutch people, 27 are Catholics and just under 17 are Protestants. Six out of 100 are Muslims, one Hindu and one Buddhist.