• 12 provinces

Netherlands Map Quiz

Tap or click the province the question names, from Friesland and its chain of islands to Limburg.

Netherlands Map Quiz

Name Date

Tap Gelderland

1 of 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
More options

Write the name of each numbered province.Answer key

  1. Friesland
  2. Groningen
  3. Zeeland
  4. Limburg
  5. North Holland
  6. South Holland
  7. Flevoland
  8. North Brabant
  9. Gelderland
  10. Drenthe
  11. Overijssel
  12. Utrecht

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each province is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a province is answered.

Next step On paper: the Netherlands outline mapZoom out: the countries of Europe

All 12 provinces on the diagram

Show the list
  1. Friesland Capital: Leeuwarden. The largest province by total area.
  2. Groningen Capital: Groningen, which is also its largest municipality.
  3. Zeeland Capital: Middelburg. The fewest people of the twelve provinces.
  4. Limburg Capital: Maastricht. Divided between the Netherlands and Belgium in 1839.
  5. North Holland Capital: Haarlem. Amsterdam is its largest municipality.
  6. South Holland Capital: The Hague. The most people of any province.
  7. Flevoland Capital: Lelystad. Reclaimed land, a province since 1 January 1986.
  8. North Brabant Capital: 's-Hertogenbosch. Eindhoven is its largest municipality.
  9. Gelderland Capital: Arnhem. The largest province by land area.
  10. Drenthe Capital: Assen. The least densely populated province.
  11. Overijssel Capital: Zwolle. Enschede is its largest municipality.
  12. Utrecht Capital: Utrecht. The smallest province by total area.

How this list was compiled: The twelve provinces, the capital and the largest municipality of each, the total and land areas behind 'largest' and 'smallest' (Friesland 5,753 square km in all, 2,413 of them water; Gelderland 4,960 of land; Utrecht 1,560 in all), the populations of 1 January 2023 (South Holland 3,804,906, Zeeland 391,124), Drenthe the least densely populated, Limburg divided between the Netherlands and Belgium in 1839, Holland split into two provinces a year later, Drenthe and North Brabant provinces since 1 January 1796, Flevoland the twelfth province on 1 January 1986, and the provinces as the layer between the national government and the municipalities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_the_Netherlands (lead, List and History), read 2026-10-14. Texel the largest of the West Frisian Islands and a municipality of North Holland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texel, read 2026-10-14. The IJsselmeer a closed-off freshwater lake, and the Markermeer the southern part a dike finished in 1976 split from it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJsselmeer and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markermeer, read 2026-10-14. The map was drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, a public-domain map dataset, which cuts its IJsselmeer shape, the Markermeer included, out of the provinces as open water; where a part lies on the map (a coast, a corner, a neighbor) was read from that drawing, and the Dutch spellings that count when typed are Natural Earth's. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Capitals from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_populated_places_simple (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_populated_places_simple.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Water cut out of the shapes from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 52.2°N 5.5°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This Netherlands map quiz asks for the twelve provinces on a blank map, in one round. The country has no states, so a Netherlands state map quiz is this one. The open water in the middle, the IJsselmeer and Markermeer lakes, is never asked.

Read the full guide

One round, and four easy shapes

A shape gives four provinces away: Friesland with its islands, Groningen in the northeast corner, the delta of Zeeland in the southwest and Limburg, the long tail of the south. The two Hollands are on the west coast, and Flevoland is beside the lake. Five have no giveaway: North Brabant, Gelderland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Utrecht.

Capital and largest city

In eight of the twelve the capital is not the largest municipality. North Holland is governed from Haarlem, not Amsterdam, and South Holland from The Hague, not Rotterdam. For the other ten capitals, open Show me the labels first and tap a province.

  • Texel, the island nearest the northwest peninsula, belongs to North Holland. The next four islands to the east are drawn with Friesland.
  • Typed answers take the Dutch names too: Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and Fryslân. Holland alone counts for neither Holland.
  • Only two provinces share a name with their capital: Groningen and Utrecht.

Questions and answers

Does the Netherlands have states or provinces?

Provinces. There are twelve, the layer of government between the national government and the municipalities, and each has a capital of its own.

When was Holland split into North and South Holland?

In 1840, a year after Limburg was divided. Holland had been one province, the largest and most populous, and the split brought the total to eleven. Drenthe and North Brabant had become provinces in 1796.

What is the largest province of the Netherlands?

Friesland, when water is counted: 2,413 of its 5,753 square kilometers are water. By land alone the largest is Gelderland. South Holland has the most people and Zeeland the fewest.

Is Limburg in Belgium or the Netherlands?

Both. In 1839, after Belgium separated, the province of Limburg was divided between the two countries, and each now has a province of that name. The Dutch one is the tail of this map, with Maastricht near its tip.

More quizzes

Show 6 more

Browse Geography Quizzes