List of cities in the Netherlands by province

Below are twelve alphabetical lists of cities in the Netherlands ordered by province.

Map of the major cities in the Netherlands

Distinctions

There are no formal rules in the Netherlands to distinguish cities from other settlements. Smaller settlements are usually called dorp, comparable with villages in English speaking countries. The Dutch word for city is stad (plural: steden). The intermediate category of town does not exist in the Netherlands.

Historically, there existed systems of city rights, granted by the territorial lords, which defined the status of a place: a stad or dorp. Cities were self-governing and had several privileges. In 1851 the granting of city rights and all privileges and special status of cities were abolished. Since then, the only local administrative unit is the municipality. Regardless of this legal change, many people still use the old city rights as a criterion: certain small settlements proudly call themselves a stad because they historically had city rights, while other, newer towns may not get this recognition.

Geographers and policy makers can distinguish between places with respect to the number of inhabitants or the economic and planological functions within a larger area. Hence, settlements can be considered a city if they function as an urban center in a rural area; while larger population centres in densely populated areas are often neither considered a village nor a city and are usually referred to with the generic word plaats (place). Inhabitants may also base their choice of words just on the subjective way they experience life at a certain place.

When discussing cities, the distinction is sometimes made between the "big four" (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), the middle-sized cities and other ones.

List

Drenthe
Drenthe

Flevoland
Flevoland

Friesland
Friesland

Gelderland
Gelderland

Groningen
Groningen

Limburg
Limburg

North Brabant
North Brabant

North Holland
North Holland

Overijssel
Overijssel

South Holland
South Holland

Utrecht
Utrecht

Zeeland
Zeeland

See also
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