Holland is two provinces, not the whole country
The Netherlands is divided into 12 provinces. Two of them, North Holland and South Holland, together cover only a small share of the country's land area but hold more than a third of its population, about 6.8 million of roughly 18.5 million, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Historically the two were a single county called Holland, a maritime and trading power within the Holy Roman Empire and later the dominant province of the Dutch Republic during its 17th century Golden Age. Because Holland was the richest, most visible part of the country, especially to foreign traders arriving by sea, the habit spread of calling the whole nation "Holland" even though the name only ever described these two provinces. Linguists call this pattern, using a part's name for the whole, a pars pro toto.
The 2020 rebrand
In 2019 the Dutch government, working with the tourist board and export agencies, announced it would stop using "Holland" as the country's international brand, with the change taking effect from 1 January 2020. The old orange "Holland" logo used at trade fairs, embassies and sporting events was replaced with "NL", and official communications switched to "the Netherlands". The stated reason was that people from the other ten provinces had long found "Holland" an inaccurate stand in for the whole country, in much the same way that calling the United Kingdom "England" annoys people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The provinces of North and South Holland still exist and are still called that; the change was about how the country as a whole should be described, not about renaming the provinces.
The 12 provinces
| Province | Capital |
|---|---|
| Drenthe | Assen |
| Flevoland | Lelystad |
| Friesland | Leeuwarden |
| Gelderland | Arnhem |
| Groningen | Groningen |
| Limburg | Maastricht |
| North Brabant | 's-Hertogenbosch |
| North Holland | Haarlem |
| Overijssel | Zwolle |
| South Holland | The Hague |
| Utrecht | Utrecht |
| Zeeland | Middelburg |
The Kingdom is bigger than the Netherlands
To complicate things further, "the Netherlands" is itself only one of four equal countries that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The other three, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, are self governing Caribbean island nations with their own parliaments and prime ministers, joined to the Netherlands through a shared monarch and a charter covering defense and foreign affairs. None of them uses the euro: Aruba keeps the Aruban florin, while Curacao and Sint Maarten share the Caribbean guilder, which replaced the old Netherlands Antillean guilder on 31 March 2025. Three smaller islands, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, are not separate countries but special municipalities of the Netherlands itself, using the US dollar rather than the euro. So a person from Aruba is a citizen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, not of Holland and not, technically, of "the Netherlands" either, since Aruba is its own constituent country within that Kingdom.
Why "Dutch," not "Hollandish" or "Netherlandish"
The English word "Dutch" comes from an old Germanic word for "of the people," the same root that gives German its own name for itself, Deutsch. English settled on "Dutch" for the people and language of the Netherlands centuries ago, unrelated to either "Holland" or "Netherlands" as place names, which is why the demonym does not match either the nickname or the official country name in the way most countries' demonyms do.
Quick facts
- The Netherlands has 12 provinces; only North Holland and South Holland are properly called Holland.
- The Dutch government retired "Holland" as the country's international brand from 1 January 2020, switching to "the Netherlands" and an "NL" logo.
- The Kingdom of the Netherlands also includes Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten as separate constituent countries, plus Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba as special municipalities.
- "Dutch" comes from an old word for "of the people," unrelated to either "Holland" or "Netherlands."