22 Facts About The Netherlands

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

2. The Netherlands is professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

3. The Netherlands has the reputation of the leader country in environmental and population management.

4. The Netherlands is the country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza.

5. 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.

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

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

8. The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,093,000 as of January 2017.

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

10. The 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.

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

12. The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 10th in GDP per capita.

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

14. 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.

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

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

17. The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are still part of the province of North Brabant.

18. The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner, except for Limburg province where the position is named Governor (Gouverneur) but has the same tasks.

19. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea level rise.

20. The Netherlands were 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.

21. The Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863, as the last country in Europe to do so.

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