The counting rule: three states, three constituent countries
This page counts sovereign, UN member states where Dutch is a national official language. By that rule there are three: the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname. A wider count that includes non sovereign territories adds Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, which are self governing constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with their own parliaments, not separate members of the United Nations. Their citizens hold Dutch nationality and Dutch is one of their official languages alongside Papiamento, and alongside English on Curacao and Sint Maarten. The Nederlandse Taalunie, the treaty body that governs the Dutch language, was founded by the Netherlands and Belgium in 1980, and Suriname joined as an associate member in 2004.
Where Dutch is spoken, place by place
| Place | Status | Dutch is |
|---|---|---|
 Netherlands |
UN member state | Sole official language |
 Belgium |
UN member state | Official in Flanders and Brussels, not Wallonia |
 Suriname |
UN member state | Sole official language |
| Aruba | Constituent country, Kingdom of the Netherlands | Official, alongside Papiamento |
| Curacao | Constituent country, Kingdom of the Netherlands | Official, alongside Papiamento |
| Sint Maarten | Constituent country, Kingdom of the Netherlands | Official, alongside English |
Speaker figures vary by source. The Taalunie and Ethnologue both put native Dutch speakers at roughly 24 million, almost all of them in the Netherlands, Flanders and Suriname, with a few million more using it as a second or heritage language across the wider Dutch Caribbean and in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony where the language has no official status today.
What language do they speak in the Netherlands?
The Netherlands is a single country of 12 provinces, and Dutch is spoken there as a first language by close to the entire resident population. If you searched for this using the word Holland, that is two provinces rather than the whole country, a distinction Holland vs the Netherlands takes apart in full. There is no separate "Netherlands language": Dutch is the name of it, in English and in the language itself, where it is called Nederlands. English is widely spoken as a second language, especially in cities and among younger people, but Dutch is what is taught in schools, used in courts, and printed on street signs everywhere except Friesland, where West Frisian holds equal official status alongside it in that one province.
Is Dutch the same as Flemish?
No, not as separate languages: Flemish is the everyday name for the Dutch spoken in Flanders, the northern, Dutch speaking half of Belgium, and it is a set of regional varieties of Dutch rather than a distinct language of its own. Belgium's 1993 federal constitution names Dutch, French and German as the country's three official languages, and Flanders and Brussels use standard Dutch in schools, government and broadcasting, with everyday speech carrying a distinct Flemish accent and vocabulary much as American and British English differ. Wallonia, the southern half of Belgium, is French speaking, and Brussels itself is officially bilingual in Dutch and French.
Afrikaans is a separate language, not a dialect
Afrikaans, spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia, developed from the Dutch brought by settlers to the Cape Colony from the 17th century onward and diverged enough in grammar and vocabulary, absorbing influence from Malay, Portuguese and local African languages, that linguists classify it as its own daughter language rather than a dialect of Dutch. It was formally recognised as a distinct standard language in 1925. It is one of South Africa's 12 official languages today, spoken as a first language by roughly 7 million people according to Ethnologue, and it is a recognised national language in Namibia. A Dutch and an Afrikaans speaker can often follow each other's writing with effort, in the way a Portuguese and a Spanish speaker manage, but the languages are not interchangeable.
Quick facts
- Dutch is a sole or official national language in three UN member states: the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname.
- Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten are separate constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, not UN members, and Dutch is official in each.
- Dutch has roughly 24 million native speakers, most of them in the Netherlands, Flanders and Suriname.
- Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa and Namibia, is a separate daughter language of Dutch, not a dialect.
- In Belgium, Dutch is official in Flanders and in Brussels but not in French speaking Wallonia.