In 1815 the Netherlands were divided into provinces. Noord-Holland was founded in 1840, after the division of the province Holland into Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland. Nowadays the Netherlands consists of 12 provinces. The Dutch provinces are in between the central government and municipalities.
Noord-Holland ranks highly not only in terms of size (2,670 km2 ) and the number of inhabitants (over 2,5 million people), but also in terms of economic activity and growth. It is also a region full of diversity, with the less densely populated rural landscapes in the north contrasting with the urban areas in the South. Much of Noord-Holland is below sea level and it contains a series of polders that is illustrative of the famous Dutch approach to land reclamation. In Noord-Holland this reclamation started around 1600 AD, before then half of the area consisted of water.
Noord-Holland is also famous for Schiphol Airport, one of the major gateways to Europe. Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is also situated in the province. However, Amsterdam is not the capital of Noord-Holland – that is Haarlem, were the provincial government building is situated.
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