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Provincie Zuid-Holland Province of South Holland
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	The Hague
Largest city	Rotterdam
Queen's Commissioner	Jan Franssen
Religion (1999)	Protestant 24% Roman Catholic 17%
Area  • Land  • Water	2.818 km² (5th) 585 km²
Population (2006)  • Total  • Density	3.458.875 (1st) 1.227/km² (1st)
Anthem	Lied van Zuid-Holland
ISO	NL-ZH
Official website	www.zuid-holland.nl

South Holland (Dutch: Zuid-Holland (help·info)) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country on the North Sea coast. It is the most densely populated and industrialised of the Dutch provinces. Neighbouring provinces are Zeeland to the southwest, North Brabant to the southeast, Gelderland to the east, Utrecht to the northeast and North Holland to the north.

It contains the major cities of The Hague (Den Haag or 's-Gravenhage) (the seat of government of the country and the seat of the International Court of Justice) and Rotterdam. Dordrecht, Leiden, Delft and Gouda have town centers with many 17th-century buildings. Katwijk has its city center situated near the beach. Rotterdam has one of the world's largest harbours. Zoetermeer is a very new city, most of it was developed in 1970. Other New Towns are Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse, all three situated in the vicinity of Rotterdam.

South Holland makes up one region of the ISO world region code system, having the code ISO 3166-2:NL-ZH. The area contains the mouth of two major European rivers: Rhine and Meuse. Rivers and other bodies of water include the Nieuwe Maas, Nieuwe Waterweg, Oude Maas, Haringvliet, Hollands Diep, Oude Rijn and Hollandse IJssel.

The province South Holland was formed in 1840, when the province Holland was split into northern (North Holland) and southern parts. Since then, South Holland has ceded three municipalities to the province of Utrecht: Oudewater in 1970, Woerden in 1989, and Vianen in 2002.

South Holland is divided into 77 municipalities (before 2006: 86) (with links to maps in brackets):

Map of South Holland with numbered municipalities (note that some former municipalities are still shown and therefore the numbers on this map do not correspond to the list).

1. Alblasserdam [1]
2. Albrandswaard [2]
3. Alkemade [3]
4. Alphen aan den Rijn [4]
5. Barendrecht [5]
6. Bergambacht [6]
7. Bernisse [7]
8. Binnenmaas
9. Bodegraven [8]
10. Boskoop [9]
11. Brielle [10]
12. Capelle aan den IJssel [11]
13. Cromstrijen [12]
14. Delft [13]
15. Den Haag
16. Dirksland [14]
17. Dordrecht [15]
18. Giessenlanden [16]
19. Goedereede [17]
20. Gorinchem [18]
21. Gouda [19]
22. Graafstroom
23. Hardinxveld-Giessendam [20]
24. Hellevoetsluis [21]
25. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht [22]
26. Hillegom [23]
27. Jacobswoude [24]
28. Katwijk [25]
29. Korendijk [26]
30. Krimpen aan den IJssel [27]
31. Lansingerland
32. Leerdam [28]
33. Leiden [29]
34. Leiderdorp [30]
35. Leidschendam-Voorburg [31]
36. Liesveld
37. Lisse [32]
    

    

    Bulb fields in Lisse.
38. Maassluis [33]
39. Middelharnis [34]
40. Midden-Delfland (until 2004 Maasland and Schipluiden}
41. Moordrecht [35]
42. Nederlek [36]
43. Nieuw-Lekkerland [37]
44. Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel [38]
45. Nieuwkoop [39]
46. Noordwijk [40]
47. Noordwijkerhout [41]
48. Oegstgeest [42]
49. Oostflakkee [43]
50. Oud-Beijerland [44]
51. Ouderkerk [45]
52. Papendrecht [46]
53. Pijnacker-Nootdorp
54. Reeuwijk [47]
55. Ridderkerk [48]
56. Rijnwoude [49]
57. Rijswijk [50]
58. Rotterdam
59. Rozenburg [51]
60. Schiedam [52]
61. Schoonhoven [53]
62. Sliedrecht [54]
63. Spijkenisse [55]
64. Strijen [56]
65. Teylingen
66. Vlaardingen [57]
67. Vlist [58]
68. Voorschoten [59]
69. Waddinxveen [60]
70. Wassenaar [61]
71. Westland
72. Westvoorne [62]
73. Zederik [63]
74. Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle [64]
75. Zoetermeer [65]
76. Zoeterwoude [66]
77. Zwijndrecht [67], [68]

On 1 January 2004 the municipalities De Lier, 's-Gravenzande, Monster, Naaldwijk and Wateringen were merged into a new municipality Westland, and Maasland and Schipluiden to another one, Midden-Delfland.

On 1 January 2006 Sassenheim, Voorhout and Warmond were merged into Teylingen, and Rijnsburg and Valkenburg were merged into Katwijk.

On 1 January 2007 Ter Aar and Liemeer were merged into Nieuwkoop, Bleiswijk, Berkel en Rodenrijs and Bergschenhoek were merged into a new municipallity Lansingerland and 's-Gravendeel was merged into Binnenmaas.

(from north to south and from west to east, with municipalities)

• Rozenburg
  • Rozenburg [69]
  • part of Rotterdam (Botlek [70], Europoort [71], Maasvlakte [72])
• IJsselmonde
  • part of Rotterdam
  • Barendrecht [73]
  • Ridderkerk [74]
  • Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht [75]
  • Zwijndrecht [76], [77]
• Voorne-Putten
  • Westvoorne [78]
  • Brielle [79]
  • Hellevoetsluis [80]
  • Bernisse [81]
  • Spijkenisse [82]
• Hoeksche Waard
  • Oud-Beijerland [83]
  • Binnenmaas
  • part of Korendijk [84]
  • Cromstrijen [85]
  • Strijen [86]
• Eiland van Dordrecht [87]
  • Dordrecht
• Goeree-Overflakkee [88]
  • Goedereede
  • Dirksland
  • Middelharnis
  • Oostflakkee.
• Tiengemeten
  • part of Korendijk [89]

There are four official regions [90]:

• Zuid-Holland Zuid [91]
  • Drechtsteden [92]
    • Alblasserdam, Dordrecht, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Papendrecht, Sliedrecht, Zwijndrecht
  • the rest of the Hoeksche Waard (see above) and Tiengemeten
  • Goeree Overflakkee (see above)
• Zuid-Holland West
  • Haaglanden [93], w:nl:Stadsgewest Haaglanden;
    • Delft, Den Haag, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Midden-Delfland, Pijnacker-Nootdorp, Rijswijk, Wassenaar, Westland, Zoetermeer.
  • Leidse regio [94]; for a little map showing the municipalities see [95], p.4);
    • Alkemade, Leiden, Leiderdorp, Oegstgeest, Voorschoten, Zoeterwoude
  • Duin- en Bollenstreek [96]; for a little map showing the municipalities see the link above;
    • Hillegom, Katwijk, Lisse, Noordwijk, Noordwijkerhout, Teylingen
• Zuid-Holland Oost (Rijn&Gouwestreek [97] + De Waarden) [98]; see also Midden-Holland [99]
  • Krimpenerwaard
    • Bergambacht, Nederlek, Schoonhoven, Vlist, Ouderkerk
  • Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden
    • Giessenlanden, Gorinchem, Graafstroom, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Leerdam, Liesveld, Nieuw-Lekkerland, Zederik.
  • Rijnstreek
    • Alphen aan den Rijn, Jacobswoude, Nieuwkoop, Rijnwoude
  • Gouwestreek
    • Bodegraven, Boskoop, Gouda, Moordrecht, Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel, Reeuwijk, Waddinxveen, Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle
• Rijnmond [100], also called Stadsregio Rotterdam [101]; see also w:nl:Stadsregio Rotterdam
  • Albrandswaard, Barendrecht, Bernisse, Brielle, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis, Krimpen aan den IJssel, Lansingerland, Maassluis, Ridderkerk, Rotterdam, Rozenburg, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Westvoorne

The term Zuidvleugel refers to a large part of the province ([102], [103], p. 13):

• Drechtsteden and some more of the Hoeksche Waard: Binnenmaas, Oud-Beijerland
• Zuid-Holland West
• Rijnmond
• a small part of Zuid-Holland Oost: Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam

• List of cities, towns and villages in South Holland
• Politics of South Holland
• nl:Categorie:Spoorwegstation in Zuid-Holland (in Dutch)http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorie:Spoorwegstation_in_Zuid-Holland - category of railway stations in South Holland

• Official site
  • List of municipalities with population and area figures (hard to find on the site, because not under Gemeenten but under Over de provincie!)
• Basic information
• Lists of towns and villages, with municipality
• Province maps showing subdivision in municipalities:
  • small version linking for each municipality to basic data page in Dutch (2006)
• Map of 1853
• www.zuid-holland.com - Tourist information.
• Tourist information for a region called Zuid-Holland Zuid (South Holland South), but different from the one in the previous section: less on the west, more on the east; it is the region called "Dutch river area" in the website of the previous link.
• http://www.atlasgeo.ch/fotw/flags/nl-zh-.html - various info on the province and its municipalities, in particular flags
• Deltaworks Online - Flood protection of South Holland and Deltaregion

Entries for South Holland in worldwide gazetteers:
Alexandria Digital Library | Getty Thesaurus | ESRI | Falling Rain | Tageo | World Gazetteer

v • d • e Provinces of the Netherlands
Drenthe • Flevoland • Friesland • Gelderland • Groningen • Limburg • North Brabant • North Holland • Overijssel • South Holland • Utrecht • Zeeland

Coordinates: 52°00′N, 4°40′E