2. Population of Holland The Netherlands is the 61st most populated country in the world and as of February 23, 2009 it has a population of 16,499,084. Between 1900 and 1950 the population had doubled from 5.1 to 10.0 million people. From 1951 to 2000 the population increased from 10.0 to 15.9 million people, making the relative increase smaller.
3. Population density The Netherlands is the twenty-seventh most densely populated country in the world. The 16,499,084 Dutch men and women are concentrated on an area of 41,526 km²; this means that the country has a population density of 397 per km², or 487 per km² if only the land area, 33,883 km², is counted. Between 1927 and 1968 an entire province, Flevoland was created. It currently houses 365,301 people. Because of these policies, the Dutch have been able to combine high levels of population density with extremely high levels of agricultural production .
4. Migration & Ethnicity As the result of immigration , the Netherlands has a sizeable minority of non indigenous peoples. There is also considerable emigration. In 2005 some 121,000 people left the country, while 94,000 entered it. Out of a total of 101,150 people immigrating to Netherlands in 2006, 66,658 were from Europe, Oceania, Americas or Japan, and 34,492 were from other (mostly developing) countries. Out of a total of 132,470 emigrants, 94,834 were going to Europe, Oceania, Americas or Japan and 37,636 to other countries A large number[ of immigrants come from countries in Western Europe, mostly from the bordering countries of Germany and Belgium
5. Recent developments With the enlargement of the European Union during the 2000s, the Netherlands has seen a rise of migrants coming from new member countries. Migrant workers from these countries total about 100,000 as of 2007. In the first nine months of 2007, about 13,000 immigrants from Bulgaria, Romania and Poland moved to the Netherlands, almost twice as much as in the same period a year earlier. Of the Poles who initially moved in 2004, about a quarter had returned by 2006.
7. Emigration The Netherlands has seen considerable emigration. In the 1950s 560,000 people migrated to the United States , South Africa , Australia , Canada and New Zealand , leaving their war-torn and overpopulated home country behind. In 2005 some 121,000 people migrated from the Netherlands. There is considerable migration towards neighbouring states, Belgium , Germany and the United Kingdom and to the Netherlands Antilles . Furthermore almost half of the current emigration consists of people returning to their country of birth, including rejected asylum seekers , after the more stringent migration laws were implemented.
8. Language The main language is Dutch , while West Frisian is also a recognized language and it is used by the government in the province of Fryslan . Several dialects of Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch) are spoken in much of the north and east and are recognized by the Netherlands as regional languages according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Another Dutch dialect granted the status of regional language is Limburgish , which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg .
9. Facts - Holland is the third biggest exporter of agricultural produce, trailing only the US and France, even though only 3% of the Dutch population works in the agriculture sector- -Holland has no less than 15,000 km of cycle paths -The Dutch are the tallest people in Europe. -Every Dutch person has a bike and there are twice as many bikes as cars. -The Van Gogh collections in the Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum are the largest in the world. -The former island of Schokland, the fortifications around Amsterdam, the windmills of Kinderdijk-Elshout, Willemstad (in the Netherlands Antilles) and the Rietveld-Schröderhuis are all on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. -Prince Willem-Alexander, the heir to the Dutch throne, takes personal interest in water management.--At Neeltje Jans in Zeeland, you can see how Holland waged war against the sea