This article is about the province of the Netherlands. For the town in the United States, see South Holland, Illinois; for the district of Lincolnshire, see South Holland, England

South Holland (Dutch Zuid-Holland) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country on the North Sea coast. It is one of the most densely populated and industrialized of the provinces. Neighbouring provinces are Zeeland to the southwest, Noord Brabant to the southeast, Gelderland to the east, Utrecht to the northeast and Noord-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. Leiden, Delft and Gouda have town centers with many 17th-century buildings. Rotterdam has one of the world's largest harbours. Zoetermeer is a very new city, most of it is created in the year 1970.

Rivers and other bodies of water include Nieuwe Maas, Nieuwe Waterweg, Oude Maas, Haringvliet, Hollands Diep.

Municipalities

South Holland is divided into 86 municipalities) (before 2004: 91) (here with shopping evenings in parentheses, and links to maps in brackets):

1. Alblasserdam [1]
2. Albrandswaard [2]
3. Alkemade (Roelofarendsveen: fr) [3]
4. Alphen aan den Rijn (fr) [4]
5. Barendrecht [5]
6. Bergambacht [6]
7. Bergschenhoek [7]
8. Berkel en Rodenrijs [8]
9. Bernisse [9]
10. Binnenmaas
11. Bleiswijk [10]
12. Bodegraven [11]
13. Boskoop [12]
14. Brielle [13]
15. Capelle aan den IJssel [14]
16. Cromstrijen [15]
17. Delft (fr) [16]
18. Den Haag - including Scheveningen (th)
19. Dirksland [17]
20. Dordrecht [18]
21. Giessenlanden [19]
22. Goedereede [20]
23. Gorinchem [21]
24. Gouda [22]
25. Graafstroom
26. 's-Gravendeel
27. Hardinxveld-Giessendam [23]
28. Hellevoetsluis [24]
29. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht [25]
30. Hillegom (th) [26]
31. Jacobswoude [27]
32. Katwijk (th, except Hoornes and Rijnsoever: fr) [28]
33. Korendijk [29]
34. Krimpen aan den IJssel [30]
35. Leerdam [31]
36. Leiden (th, except Merenwijk: fr) [32]
37. Leiderdorp (fr) [33]
38. Leidschendam-Voorburg [34]
39. Liemeer [35]
40. Liesveld
41. Lisse (th) [36]
42. Maassluis [37]
43. Middelharnis [38]
44. Midden-Delfland (until 2004 Maasland and Schipluiden}
45. Moordrecht [39]
46. Nederlek [40]
47. Nieuw-Lekkerland [41]
48. Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel [42]
49. Nieuwkoop [43]
50. Noordwijk (th) [44]
51. Noordwijkerhout (fr) [45]
52. Oegstgeest (fr) [46]
53. Oostflakkee [47]
54. Oud-Beijerland [48]
55. Ouderkerk [49]
56. Papendrecht [50]
57. Pijnacker-Nootdorp (Nootdorp: fr)
58. Reeuwijk [51]
59. Ridderkerk [52]
60. Rijnsburg (fr) [53]
61. Rijnwoude [54]
62. Rijswijk [55]
63. Rotterdam - including Hoek van Holland (fr)
64. Rozenburg [56]
65. Sassenheim (th)
66. Schiedam [57]
67. Schoonhoven [58]
68. Sliedrecht [59]
69. Spijkenisse [60]
70. Strijen [61]
71. Ter Aar [62]
72. Valkenburg (fr)
73. Vlaardingen [63]
74. Vlist [64]
75. Voorhout (fr)
76. Voorschoten (fr) [65]
77. Waddinxveen [66]
78. Warmond
79. Wassenaar [67]
80. Westland (until 2004 De Lier, 's-Gravenzande, Monster, Naaldwijk and Wateringen)
81. Westvoorne [68]
82. Zederik [69]
83. Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle [70]
84. Zoetermeer (th) [71]
85. Zoeterwoude [72]
86. Zwijndrecht - including Heerjansdam [73], [74]

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

Possibly Sassenheim, Voorhout and Warmond will be merged in the future.

Links to municipalities arranged according to location

(please add more municipalities)

                    Hillegom
                 Lisse
          Noordwijk
      Katwijk
         Leiden              Alphen aan den Rijn 
 Wassenaar Voorschoten                          Bodegraven
          Leidschendam-Voorburg
The Hague Zoetermeer                   Gouda
   Rijswijk Nootdorp
       Delft            Capelle aan den IJssel
Westland Vlaardingen Schiedam Rotterdam
                           Barendrecht
                            Zwijndrecht
                             Dordrecht Sliedrecht Gorinchem

Islands

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

• Rozenburg
  • Rozenburg [75]
  • part of Rotterdam (Botlek [76], Europoort [77], Maasvlakte [78])
• IJsselmonde
  • part of Rotterdam
  • Albrandswaard [79]
  • Barendrecht [80]
  • Ridderkerk [81]
  • Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht [82]
  • Zwijndrecht [83], [84]
• Voorne-Putten
  • Westvoorne [85]
  • Brielle [86]
  • Hellevoetsluis [87]
  • Bernisse [88]
  • Spijkenisse [89]
• Hoeksche Waard (the six municipalities are possibly merged in 2005 or 2006)
  • Oud-Beijerland [90]
  • Binnenmaas
  • 's-Gravendeel
  • part of Korendijk [91]
  • Cromstrijen [92]
  • Strijen [93]
• Eiland van Dordrecht [94]
  • Dordrecht
• Goeree-Overflakkee [95]
  • Goedereede
  • Dirksland
  • Middelharnis
  • Oostflakkee.
• Tiengemeten
  • part of Korendijk [96]

Subdivisions

There are four official regions [97]:

• Zuid-Holland Zuid [98]
  • Drechtsteden [99]
    • Alblasserdam, Dordrecht, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Papendrecht, Sliedrecht, Zwijndrecht, 's-Gravendeel
  • the rest of the Hoeksche Waard (see above) and Tiengemeten
  • Goeree Overflakkee (see above)
• Zuid-Holland West
  • Haaglanden [100], ;
    • Delft, Den Haag, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Midden-Delfland, Pijnacker-Nootdorp, Rijswijk, Wassenaar, Westland, Zoetermeer.
  • Leidse regio [101]; for a little map showing the municipalities see [102], p.4);
    • Alkemade, Leiden, Leiderdorp, Oegstgeest, Voorschoten, Zoeterwoude
  • Duin- en Bollenstreek [103]; for a little map showing the municipalities see the link above;
    • Hillegom, Katwijk, Lisse, Noordwijk, Noordwijkerhout, Rijnsburg, Sassenheim, Valkenburg, Voorhout, Warmond
• Zuid-Holland Oost (Rijn&Gouwestreek [104] + De Waarden) [105]; see also Midden-Holland [106]
  • Krimpenerwaard
    • Bergambacht, Nederlek, Schoonhoven, Vlist, Ouderkerk
  • Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden
    • Giessenlanden, Gorinchem, Graafstroom, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Leerdam, Liesveld, Nieuw-Lekkerland, Zederik.
  • Rijnstreek
    • Ter Aar, Alphen aan den Rijn, Jacobswoude, Liemeer, Nieuwkoop, Rijnwoude
  • Gouwestreek
    • Bodegraven, Boskoop, Gouda, Moordrecht, Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel, Reeuwijk, Waddinxveen, Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle
• Rijnmond [107], also called Stadsregio Rotterdam [108]; see also
  • Albrandswaard, Barendrecht, Bergschenhoek, Berkel en Rodenrijs, Bernisse, Bleiswijk, Brielle, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis, Krimpen aan den IJssel, Maassluis, Ridderkerk, Rotterdam, Rozenburg, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Westvoorne

The term Zuidvleugel refers to a large part of the province ([109], [110], 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

External links

• 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
  • gif
  • pdf (map on page 6, higher resolution than the gif-map)

These maps are not quite up-to-date: they do not yet reflect that Heerjansdam has merged into Zwijndrecht.

• Map of 1853
• Tourist information - The province is subdivided in eight regions, not corresponding to those above. The maps show villages, not municipalities.
• 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

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