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Country Facts - Netherlands

The People


Ethnic Composition
Dutch                         83%
Other 17%
Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese and Indonesians 9%

Religious Composition
Unaffiliated  40%
Roman Catholic  31%
Protestant  21%
Muslim  4.4%
Other  3.6%

Nationality

Dutch

Languages Spoken

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands. English, French, German, and Frisian are spoken in varying degrees.

Education and Literacy

The government allocates 17 percent of its national budget to education. The government funds eight universities and five professional institutes. Ten years of schooling are compulsory. Literacy is 99 percent.

Labor Force

Total:  7.2 million (2000)

By occupation:
Services 73%
Manufacturing 23%
Agriculture 4%

Geography

Land Mass Total

16,033 sq mi (41,526 sq km)

Land

13,082 sq mi (33,883 sq km)

Water

2,950 sq mi (
7,643 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 638 mi (1,027 km)
Border countries: Belgium 279 mi (450 km), Germany 358 mi (577 km)

Coastline

280 mi (451 km)

Maritime claim

Exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

Temperate; marine; cool summers and mild winters.

Terrain

Mostly coastal lowland and reclaimed land (polders); some hills in southeast.

Elevation extremes

Lowest point: Zuidplaspolder 22 ft (7 m)
Highest point: Vaalserberg 1,056 ft (322 m)

Natural Resources

Natural gas, petroleum, arable land.

Land use

Arable land 27%
Permanent crops 1%
Other 72%
(1998)

Natural hazards

The extensive system of dikes and dams protects nearly one-half of the total area from being flooded.

Environment - current issues

Water pollution in the form of heavy metals, organic compounds, and nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates; air pollution from vehicles and refining activities; acid rain.

Geography Note

Located at mouths of three major European rivers (Rhine, Maas or Meuse, and Schelde).

Demographics

Population

16,067,754 (July 2002)

Age structure

0-14 years: 18.3% male 1,502,687 female 1,437,141
15-64 years: 67.9% male 5,548,188 female 5,362,412
65 years and over: 13.8% male 913,020 female 1,304,306

Growth Rate

0.53% (2002)

Life Expectancy

78.58 years (2002)
female: 81.59 years
male: 75.7 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity 
US$25,800 (2001)

Infant Mortality

4.31 deaths/1,000 live births (2002)

Sex ratio

At birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.98 male(s)/female
(2002)

Net migration rate

2.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)

Economy & Trade

The Netherlands is a prosperous and open economy depending heavily on foreign trade. The economy is noted for stable industrial relations, moderate inflation, a sizable current account surplus, and an important role as a European transportation hub. Industrial activity is predominantly in food processing, chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery. A highly mechanized agricultural sector employs no more than 4 percent of the labor force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry and for exports. The Netherlands, along with 11 of its E.U. partners, began circulating the euro currency on 1 January 2002. The country continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment. Economic growth slowed considerably in 2001 as part of the global economic slowdown; but for the four years before that, annual growth averaged nearly 4 percent, well above the E.U. average. However, the Dutch economy has shown no real sign of recovery, with GDP growing by only 0.3 percent for the year-on-year third quarter of 2002, with inflation remaining relatively high heading into 2003 at around 3 percent. GDP growth of only 1.25 perent is expected in 2003 and then moving towards a less than spectacular 2 percent in 2004. The sudden admission in February 2003 that one of the country's flagship firms, Ahold, had accounting "discrepancies" of US$500 million rocked the economic community in Amsterdam as well as the E.U.

Unemployment

2.4% (2001)

Inflation Rate

4.5% (2001)

Industries

Agroindustries, metal and engineering products, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction, microelectronics, fishing.

Exports

US$214 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

US$195 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$413 billion (2001)

Top Export Partners

EU 78% (Germany 26%, Benelux 12%, France 12%, UK 11%, Italy 6%), Central and Eastern Europe, US (2000)

Top Import Partners

EU 56% (Germany 18%, Benelux 10%, UK 9%, France 6%), US 10% (2000)

Top Exports

Machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs.

Top Imports

Machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs, clothing.

Debt - external

$0

Economic aid

ODA, $3.5 billion (2000)

Fiscal Year:

Calendar year

Business Workweek
  Monday - Friday Saturday - Sunday
Offices 8:30p.m. to 5:30p.m. Closed
Retail 9a.m. to 6p.m., with one late evening per week. Saturday 9a.m. to 5p.m.
Banks 9a.m. to 4p.m., main branches until 5 p.m.
Thursday evenings 4:30p.m. to 7p.m.		 Closed
Government 8:30a.m. to 4p.m. Closed


 

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays 2003 2004 2005
New Year's Day January 1 January 1 January 1
Good Friday April 18 April 9 March 25
Easter¹ April 20 April 11 March 27
Easter Monday April 21 April 12 March 28
Queen's Day April 30 April 30 April 30
Liberation Day May 5 May 5 May 5
Ascension² May 29 May 20 May 6
Whit Sunday (Pentecost)³ June 8 May 30 May 15
Whit Monday June 9 May 31 May 16
Christmas Day*¹ December 25 December 25 December 25
Second Day of Christmas December 26 December 26 December 26

¹ Easter, a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the first Sunday after the full moon and the vernal equinox (fixed in the Gregorian calendar at March 21), and often observed with Good Friday and Easter Monday.  In the West, Easter is predicted using the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christians use the much older Julian calendar, and celebrate 13 days later.
² The feast of Ascension takes place 40 days after Easter in both the Christian and Orthodox faiths and celebrates the ascent of Christ into Heaven. 
³  The Christian feast of Pentecost, Whit Sunday or Whit Monday takes place 50 days after Easter, in observation of the day God came to the disciples through the Holy Ghost.
*¹ Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. In A.D.320, Pope Julius I fixed the date at December 25 based on the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox church calculates Christmas using the Julian calendar and celebrates 13 days later on January 7.
Country information used by permission of World Trade Press