In 2004, the Netherlands had more than 16 million inhabitants in an area of 41,528 square kilometres, with only 33,783 square kilometres of dry land. This comes to 480 inhabitants for every square kilometre, making the Netherlands one of the world's most densely populated countries.
There can be few Dutch people without an immigrant somewhere in their family tree. Of the current population, 4% are foreign nationals. High population density is the main reason why the Netherlands pursues a restrictive immigration policy.
Around the 1950s, high population density led the government to encourage emigration. Many Dutch people left their homeland to build new lives in faraway places like Australia and Canada. But in the 1960s and 1970s, a labour shortage in the Netherlands attracted many "guest workers".
In recent years, the Netherlands has admitted immigrants on only three grounds: if their presence serves an essential Dutch interest, if they are entitled to live here under an international agreement, or if there are compelling humanitarian reasons for admitting them. The Government actively pursues policies to promote the integration of immigrants.
Since the Reformation of the 16th century, the Netherlands has been divided into predominantly Catholic and Protestant parts. The border between the two runs diagonally across the country from the southwest to the northeast. The Protestant community is further divided into the Reformed Church and many other denominations ranging from orthodox to liberal.
In the early 17th century, many Jews settled in the Netherlands, having fled bloody persecution in Spain and Portugal. Later that century, many Huguenots (French Calvinists) also found refuge here. In the 20th century, Hindus and Muslims began to arrive from the former colonies of Indonesia and Suriname. And since the 1960s, they have been joined by more Muslims from Morocco and Turkey.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the churches lost much of their influence in the Netherlands. First many Protestants, then many Catholics, abandoned formal religion. Less than half of the Dutch population now belongs to a church.
Dutch society used to be marked by verzuiling ("pillarisation"), social organisation on religious or ideological lines. Catholic, Protestant, socialist, liberal - each "pillar" had its own civic organisations along with newspapers, broadcasting associations, schools and political parties. The remnants of verzuiling are still evident in many Dutch institutions.
One benefit of verzuiling was that it helped prevent friction among different religious and ideological groups, since they lived more or less independently alongside each other. But society has changed. Secular attitudes - progressive, conservative and liberal - have replaced the old loyalties. Verzuiling is gradually fading away.
Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution says: "All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted."
"Just act normal - that's crazy enough" is a familiar Dutch expression. The Dutch are level-headed; they hate fuss and nonsense. They are self-willed, fond of their freedom, and inclined to stand up for themselves and their ideas. They prefer negotiating to fighting. For centuries, they have been consulting with each other and reaching compromise agreements. This has led to a tolerant climate for minority groups and manifests itself in liberal Dutch policies on abortion, euthanasia and drugs.
But the Dutch also know how to protest. In the 1980s, they protested en masse against a NATO attempt to place cruise missiles on Dutch soil. In NATO circles, this mood of protest was known as "Hollanditis". At international sporting events, such as the Olympic Games and football and ice-skating championships, the Dutch stand firmly behind their national heroes. Legions of supporters have bedecked many a foreign stadium in orange, the national colour.
The image of the Dutch has changed considerably in recent decades. They used to be known mainly for their thrifty Calvinistic lifestyle. But they have become more fun-loving, especially in the big cities. These days, the Dutch like to spend money on going out, taking holidays and decorating their homes.
The most common type of dwelling in the Netherlands is the terraced house: a family home, two or three storeys high, with a front and back garden, built in a row with several identical houses. In the cities, where space is at a premium, many people live in low or high-rise flats.
Gezellig is a characteristic Dutch word. It suggests the pleasant atmosphere among a small, intimate group of friends and relatives.
The Dutch like things gezellig. You can see it in their homes. They spend a lot of time at home and prefer to entertain there. They also spend a lot of time and money decorating the home. Modern or antique - it doesn't matter as long as it's attractive and gezellig. Most Dutch children have their own room, which they decorate to their own taste.
Flowers and plants, often displayed on the windowsill, are an important part of the furniture in most Dutch homes. And if you neglect your garden, you can expect dirty looks from the neighbours. Many people leave their curtains open in the evenings. You can peek inside, but it's considered rude for passers-by to stand and stare.
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Housing and recreation, commerce and manufacturing, traffic and transport, agriculture and nature conservation - space for all these activities has to be found in a careful and coordinated manner.
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) is responsible for providing this coordination. In the past, spatial planners used to draw up plans for fixed periods; now they apply more flexible guidelines, taking account of changing developments. The Spatial Planning Act provides the statutory framework for planning in the Netherlands.
The municipalities are responsible for planning at local level. Municipal councils draw up plans showing how land may be used - for industry, housing, recreation, etc. - and what may be built on and under it.
The provincial authorities draw up regional plans and approve or overturn municipal planning decisions. Central government sets out planning guidelines based on its national spatial planning policy.
Until the 20th century, central government rarely concerned itself with housing. Local authorities alone laid down regulations on building alignment, fire safety and sanitation. All this changed radically with the 1901 Housing Act, which gave central government new powers to plan housing and urban development.
The Second World War left a huge housing shortage, whose impact lasted well into the 1980s. In the 40 years after the Second World War, 100,000 new homes were built on average every year, the vast majority with state subsidies.
This enabled rents to stay low and large-scale building programmes to continue. Rents were kept as low as possible so that wages could be kept low too. Low wages strengthened the Netherlands' ability to compete on export markets.
Quantity rather than quality was the principle underpinning housing policy in the years immediately after the Second World War. But in the 1970s, attitudes changed, and the emphasis shifted to the future value of dwellings and thus their quality. A new policy instrument was introduced: housing benefit, for tenants who would otherwise be spending too much of their income on rent.
In the late 1980s, the government had to economise drastically in most areas, including housing. By the early 1990s, spending on housing benefit had risen sharply, so the government started to target them more narrowly at people with lower incomes. The municipalities have played an important part in carrying out this policy.
2.4 million rented dwellings - around 37% of all those in the Netherlands - are administered by housing associations, non-profit organisations working to provide adequate housing. As part of the government drive towards decentralisation, the housing associations have been privatised in recent years. Central government has delegated the task of supervising housing associations to the provinces and the municipalities.
Government housing policy has changed in recent years. For a long time, its main task was simply building the many homes that were needed. Since then, priority has shifted to the home's durability, quality and surroundings. "Housing policy now takes account of individual preferences. The basic principle of Dutch housing policy is that everyone - rich and poor, young and old, tenant and owner-occupier - should be able to afford a decent place to live in reasonable surroundings.
Many people want to buy homes, and the government wants to make it easier for them to do so. Its goal is to have 65% of the housing stock owner-occupied by 2010. The current proportion is 50%.
Rent subsidies are still necessary to make housing affordable for those on low incomes.
The Netherlands has 6.5 million homes, with an average of 2.5 persons living in each one. Up to 2005, 100,000 homes are to be built every year, a quarter of them for the rental market. The government is helping develop construction sites, clean up the soil, and build infrastructure. It is also encouraging the use of eco-friendly building methods, materials, and structures for building new homes and for renovating and maintaining existing ones.
Most people are active in their leisure time. They are members of sports clubs, music groups or choirs. Many people attend lessons or courses to learn a foreign language, cooking, or computer skills.
The Dutch spend much of their leisure time doing odd jobs in and around the home. At weekends, they often visit friends or relatives. In the evening, they watch a lot of television. In most places, they can receive dozens of domestic and foreign TV channels on cable. Many people go on holiday abroad at least once a year.
On their days off, many Dutch people go to weekend cottages or caravans on a campsite. Or they take to the water in their sailboat or motor boat. Other popular destinations are zoos and amusement parks. On sunny days, hordes of people head for the beaches, go for bike rides in the country, or relax at outdoor cafÈs.
Thanks to the five-day working week, the Dutch have plenty of leisure time. As well as joining societies and sports clubs, they are fond of tending their gardens. City dwellers without a garden often have a plot with a shed on the outskirts of town. Many people like to do odd jobs around the home, like building, painting and gardening. Every town and city has at least one big do-it-yourself store and several large garden centres, which can count on plenty of business. Most families also have a home computer, on which they spend many hours working, playing, or surfing the Internet.
After school, many children learn to play musical instruments. A lot of them continue playing as adults. The Netherlands also has many marching bands, which perform at weekends and on public holidays. And few countries have as many choirs.
The Dutch love to cycle, for business and pleasure. Many of them cycle to and from work. The bicycle is practically the national means of transport.
When the country's lakes and ditches freeze over, thousands of people strap on their skates. The Elfstedentocht is the best known skating event in the Netherlands. But it is also a rare one. It can only take place if the ice is firm the whole length of the course - which is possible only after several days of severe frost. Some participants skate competitively; others do it just for fun. Competitors start first. Then thousands of non-competitive skaters try to complete the 220-km-long course through 11 Frisian towns within the time required.
Sport is an important part of life in the Netherlands. Of the country's 16 million people, 4.7 million are members of its 35,000 sports clubs. The state subsidises sports clubs not only to promote healthy living, but also because it recognises their social role. Most of their income comes from membership fees, admission charges, and revenue from the football pools and lotteries. Sports policy is largely in the hands of the national federation of sporting organisations, the NOC*NSF.
As well as taking part in sport, the Dutch also like to watch it. Thousands of supporters travel to stadiums with their favourite clubs or sporting heroes. Football, in particular, attracts many thousands of supporters. Unfortunately, this also causes problems. The police often have to prevent high-risk matches from ending in pitched battles between rival football hooligans. But when national teams play against other countries, supporters swathe themselves in orange and the whole country stands behind its national heroes.
The Netherlands has a tradition of excellence in many sports. At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Dutch competitors won 25 medals, 12 of them gold. Winners of gold medals included swimmers Inge de Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband, cyclist Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, judoka Mark Huizinga, horsewoman Anky van Grunsven, showjumper Jeroen Dubbeldam, and the men's hockey team.
The Netherlands is one of the world's leading ice-skating countries. Top skaters include Rintje Ritsma, Jan Bos, Gianni Romme and Gerben Wennemars.
Football is the national game. The one-million-strong Dutch football association (KNVB) is the country's largest sporting organisation. Teams, both professional and amateur, play at a variety of levels. Many professional teams have their own modern stadiums - with Amsterdam's ArenA and Arnhem's Gelredome among the world's finest. The national football team and the clubs Ajax, Feijenoord and PSV play with a prowess that has earned them worldwide reputations. And since 2000, when the Netherlands jointly hosted the European Football Championship (EURO 2000), its fame as a footballing country has grown further.
Almost all Dutch people go on holiday at least once a year. Foreign holidays are popular. France receives the highest number of Dutch tourists, but Spain and Greece are also favourite destinations. A growing number of Dutch people go skiing in France, Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
All the same, many Dutch people spend their holidays in the Netherlands. In summer, the coast is the most popular destination. As well as the Dutch, around 10 million foreigners spend their holidays in the Netherlands. Most of them come from neighbouring Germany, but many also come from the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Canada and the United States. In the 1990s, the number of tourists from Spain, Italy and Japan grew.
The Netherlands has many amusement and theme parks, offering a variety of attractions: from dolphin shows and breathtaking roller coasters to fairy-tale forests and the country in miniature.
The Efteling is a large amusement park with a fairy tale
theme.
Madurodam displays Dutch architectural landmarks in a miniature
city.
Six Flags Holland specialises in white-knuckle rides.
And Harderwijk Dolfinarium offers a unique dolphin show.
Zoos have undergone major changes in recent years. Most of them now keep the animals in their natural habitat as much as possible. In 2001, Blijdorp Zoo (Rotterdam) opened its Oceanium, a journey around the world's seas including a 26-meter-long shark tunnel.
Dutch is the mother tongue of more than 21 million people in the Netherlands and Belgium. In northwestern France, around 60,000 people speak a dialect of Dutch.
Dutch is used widely in government and education in the former colony of Suriname and in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (which are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands). In Indonesia, many lawyers and historians speak Dutch owing to historical ties. Afrikaans, which is spoken in South Africa, evolved from 17th-century Dutch. Dutch has also influenced other languages, especially in shipping, waterworks and agriculture.
Dutch is taught at around 250 universities around the world. In French-speaking Belgium, northern France and Germany, many pupils choose Dutch as their second language. In 1980, the Netherlands and Flanders founded the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union), which promotes Dutch worldwide and draws up rules for spelling and grammar.
The Netherlands has various dialects, but they are slowly disappearing under the influence of radio and television. In the province of Friesland, a separate language is spoken: Frisian. This officially recognised lesser-used language is the mother tongue of around 400,000 Frisians. It is similar in some ways to English and the Scandinavian languages. Dutch is the basic language of education throughout the country, including Friesland.
In recent years, eating habits have changed considerably. The Dutch diet normally consists of two cold meals (breakfast and lunch) and a hot meal (dinner) consisting of meat or fish, potatoes and a large portion of vegetables.
As the Dutch have travelled more widely and learned about the different eating habits of immigrants, their culinary tastes have widened. This is evidenced by the many cookery programmes on television and food columns in newspapers and magazines. These days, many people prepare foreign dishes at home or eat them in ethnic restaurants.
Dutch drinking habits have also changed. As people have become more prosperous, they have come to spend more time at pavement cafÈs, where they usually drink beer or wine. They are also drinking more beer and wine at dinner in the evening. At lunch, however, the Dutch still stick to a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea. Total per capita alcohol consumption in the Netherlands is lower than in France, Spain, Germany and Italy.
For the rest, the Dutch are real coffee drinkers. At home or at work, they drink coffee all day. Tea (without milk) is also popular. It is considered polite for hosts to offer visitors tea or coffee on arrival.
The sea is the source of many Dutch specialities, such as fresh fish, mussels and oysters. Dutch cheeses, such as Gouda and Edam, are world famous. A wide variety of vegetables are available. In spring, white asparagus is on many a restaurant menu.
Traditional Dutch cuisine is very simple. Breakfast and lunch consist of sandwiches: cheese, sausage, peanut butter or jam. Popular hot meals in winter are stamppot (mashed potatoes mixed with cabbage) and pea soup (made with split peas, onion, leek, smoked sausage and bacon).
The Dutch love french fries with mayonnaise or spicy peanut sauce. Or a kroket, a deep-fried portion of meat ragout encased in batter. A fish-stall favourite is salted raw herring, downed with chopped raw onion. And children like pancakes and poffertjes (miniature pancakes, served with castor sugar and butter). Nowadays, you can also get many foreign snacks, such as hamburgers, shoarma rolls, Vietnamese spring rolls, and Japanese sushi.`
With coffee, people often eat apple pie or treacle waffles. In Friesland, they eat cinnamon bread, and in Limburg fruit vlaai (flan). Two favourite confectioneries are dropjes (salty liquorice) and Haagse Hopjes (caramel-flavoured boiled sweets). Popular strong liquors are jenever (Dutch gin) and advocaat (made with eggs and brandy). Dutch beer is well known throughout the world thanks to the huge Heineken brewing concern.
The Netherlands has a rich variety of foreign restaurants, especially in the big cities. Chinese and Indonesian cuisine, part of our colonial heritage, are especially well represented. Many of the Dutch who returned from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) brought recipes back with them. Almost every town and village has a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant. Other popular foreign cuisines are Spanish, Italian, Greek and Turkish.
Traditional local dress is no longer often worn in the Netherlands, except perhaps in tourist towns like Marken and Volendam and in strongly conservative communities like Staphorst. And even there, it is mainly the older people who wear it. Younger generations prefer modern clothing. Dutch girls wearing traditional dress in cheese advertisements do not reflect everyday reality.
The Dutch have their own way of celebrating birthdays. Friends and relatives congregate at the birthday boy or girl's home and sit together in a large circle.
Other Dutch traditions include the Sinterklaasfeest (the Feast of St Nicholas), Koninginnedag (the Queen's Birthday), the May commemorations and Carnival.
For Dutch children, 5 December is the special day on which they celebrate the Sinterklaasfeest, or Feast of St Nicholas. In the evening, people give each other presents, usually accompanied with a poem or hidden in a surprise package.
Around the time of the Sinterklaasfeest, people eat a lot of sweet things, like speculaas (spiced biscuits), pepernoten (gingernuts) and taaitaai (gingerbread). The shops sell all the letters of the alphabet in chocolate. People often get the first letter of their first name as a present.
The Sinterklaasfeest is named after St Nicholas, a 4th-century Byzantine bishop about whom little is known. According to legend, the popular saint saved children from death and provided brides with dowries. Small children in the Netherlands believe that Sinterklaas really exists. According to the story, he lives in Spain and has a big book saying which children have been good and which have been naughty. Sinterklaas' annual arrival in Amsterdam is a big event, covered live on television." He sails into the port in an old steamer, then makes a journey through town on a white horse. He is accompanied by his helpers, the Zwarte Pieten("Black Petes"), who have blacked-up faces and brightly coloured costumes. When Sinterklaas is in the Netherlands, children put their shoes by the stove. According to the story, he rides through the night on his white horse over the roofs and throws presents and sweets down the chimneys. To tempt his horse, children put carrots and hay in their shoes. Sinterklaas is a similar figure to Santa Claus or Father Christmas in many other countries.
The 30th of April is an official public holiday: Koninginnedag, the birthday of the former queen Juliana. Her daughter Beatrix has kept it as a public holiday in tribute to her mother. Members of the Royal Family visit two Dutch towns on Koninginnedag. All over the country, people dress in orange. The flags fly with an orange pennant, the symbol of the Royal House of Orange-Nassau. The party lasts the entire day. Separate parties are often organised for children. Most big cities allow unregulated street markets, where anyone may sell anything on the street. And there is music everywhere.
On 4 May, at war memorials around the country, the Dutch commemorate those who fell in the Second World War. The flags hang at half mast, and at 8pm, two minutes of silence is observed. Every year, the Queen lays a wreath at the National Monument in Amsterdam. The following day, 5 May, is called Bevrijdingsdag, Liberation Day. Special events and parties are organised to celebrate the freedom that we now hold dear.
In the mainly Catholic south and east of the Netherlands, Carnival is celebrated lavishly in the early spring. Brightly coloured Carnival processions make their way through the city centres. In July, Rotterdam organises a major Caribbean summer carnival, a celebration with its origins in the Netherlands Antilles.