The Netherlands, casually Holland, is a nation in Northwestern Europe with some abroad regions in the Caribbean. In Europe, it comprises of 12 regions that fringe Germany toward the east, Belgium toward the south, and the North Sea toward the northwest, with sea outskirts in the North Sea with those nations and the United Kingdom. Together with three island domains in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba—it shapes a constituent nation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch and an auxiliary authority language in the territory of Friesland is West Frisian. In the north and east of the nation, Low Saxon is additionally spoken, and in the southeast Limburgish.

The four biggest urban communities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe, and the biggest in any nation outside Asia. The nation is an establishing individual from the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, just as a piece of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It has a few intergovernmental associations and worldwide courts, huge numbers of which are focused in The Hague, which is thus named 'the world's lawful capital'.

Netherlands truly signifies 'bring down nations' in reference to its low rise and level geology, with just about half of its territory surpassing 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) above ocean level, and almost 17% falling underneath ocean level.[18] Most of the territories beneath ocean level, known as polders, are the aftereffect of land recovery that started in the sixteenth century. With a populace of 17.34 million individuals, all living inside an all-out territory of approximately 41,500 square kilometers (16,000 sq mi)— of which the land region is 33,700 square kilometers (13,000 sq mi)— the Netherlands is one of the most thickly populated nations on the planet. In any case, it is the world's second-biggest exporter of nourishment and agrarian items (after the United States), attributable to its rich soil, gentle atmosphere, and escalated horticulture.

The Netherlands has been a parliamentary established government with a unitary structure since 1848. The nation has a convention of pillarisation and a long record of social resistance, having sanctioned fetus removal, prostitution and human willful extermination, alongside keeping up a liberal medication strategy. The Netherlands abrogated capital punishment in 1870, permitted ladies' suffrage in 1917, and turned into the world's first nation to authorize same-sex marriage in 2001. Its blended market propelled economy had the thirteenth-most noteworthy per capita pay comprehensively. The Netherlands positions among the most elevated in global files of press opportunity, financial opportunity, human advancement, and personal satisfaction, just as bliss.