68 Facts About Netherlands

1.

The Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union.

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2.

Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848.

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3.

The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in Civil Law in 1870, though it was not completely removed until a new constitution was approved in 1983.

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4.

The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001.

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5.

Netherlands is informally referred to as Holland in various languages, including Dutch and English.

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6.

Prehistory of the area that is the Netherlands was largely shaped by the sea and the rivers that constantly shifted the low-lying geography.

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7.

Netherlands established the Archdiocese of Utrecht and became bishop of the Frisians.

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8.

Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible.

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9.

Under Habsburg Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Spain, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and some adjacent land in what is France and Germany.

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10.

The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until the autumn of 1813 when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.

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11.

However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled.

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12.

The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium, while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs.

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13.

Netherlands was able to remain neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916.

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14.

In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure of the Netherlands, which was a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation.

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15.

The Netherlands was one of the founding members of the Benelux, the NATO, Euratom and the European Coal and Steel Community, which would evolve into the EEC and later the European Union.

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16.

In recent times, much of the Netherlands has seen a reclamation of land from what were once waterways.

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17.

The south-western part of the Netherlands is to this day a river delta of these three rivers, the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta.

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18.

European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse.

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19.

The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and eolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.

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20.

Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work.

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21.

The average temperature in the Netherlands rose by almost 2 degrees Celsius from 1906 to 2017.

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22.

Netherlands has 20 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves, that include lakes, heathland, woods, dunes, and other habitats.

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23.

Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom.

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24.

The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.

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25.

The Caribbean Netherlands have maritime borders with Anguilla, Curacao, France, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U S Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

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26.

Islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round.

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27.

Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815, and due to the efforts of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke became a parliamentary democracy in 1848.

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28.

Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner.

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29.

Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU.

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30.

Foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law.

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31.

Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established as such by Maurice of Nassau in the late 1500s.

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32.

Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949.

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33.

The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando.

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34.

The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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35.

Netherlands has a developed economy and has been playing a special role in the European economy for many centuries.

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36.

The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report, and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017.

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37.

The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries.

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38.

Examples of international Dutch companies operating in Netherlands include Randstad, Unilever, Heineken, KLM, financial services, chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Royal Dutch Shell), electronic machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).

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39.

Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP per capita.

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40.

The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners.

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41.

Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States.

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42.

The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.

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43.

Netherlands is faced with future challenges as the energy supply is forecasted to fall short of the demand by 2025 in the gas sector.

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44.

Furthermore, The European Union 2020 package enacted in 2009 has influenced the domestic energy politics of Netherlands and pressured non-state actors to give consent to more aggressive energy reforms that would reduce reliance on natural resources as a source of income to the economy.

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45.

Furthermore, the energy market in the Netherlands remains to be dominated by few major corporations Nuon, RWE, E ON, Eneco, and Delta that have significant influence over the energy policy.

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46.

From a biological resource perspective, the Netherlands has a low endowment: the Netherlands' biocapacity totals only 0.

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47.

Netherlands had an estimated population of 17, 493, 969 as of 30 April 2021.

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48.

Netherlands subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.

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49.

The average height of young males in the Netherlands increased from 5 feet, 4 inches to approximately 6 feet between the 1850s until the early 2000s.

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50.

Netherlands has a long tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws.

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51.

Population of the Netherlands was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century, divided into a number of denominations.

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52.

The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, a united church which is Calvinist and Lutheran in orientation.

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53.

The Netherlands has an estimated 250, 000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people.

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54.

Netherlands was ranked 5th in the Global Innovation Index in 2020, down from 4th in 2019.

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55.

Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university.

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56.

In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its number one position at the top of the annual Euro health consumer index, which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1, 000 points.

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57.

The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005.

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58.

On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.

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59.

The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.

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60.

The Netherlands has the largest fleet of active historical ships in the world.

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61.

Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject.

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62.

Netherlands has a long history of social tolerance and today is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drug policy and its legalisation of euthanasia.

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63.

On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalise same-sex marriage.

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64.

Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and has won five times.

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65.

Internationally, successful directors of photography from the Netherlands are Hoyte van Hoytema and Theo van de Sande (Wayne's World and Blade).

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66.

Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters.

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67.

TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably through internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende.

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68.

Netherlands has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 110 medals at the Winter Olympic Games.

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