List of cities in the Netherlands by province

The intermediate category of town does not exist in Dutch, but provinciestad (small city in the province) comes close.

Historically, there existed systems of city rights, granted by the territorial lords, which defined the status of a place: a stad or dorp.

Yet the old and third largest urban center of The Hague, has the status of the seat of the national government, but never received city rights for deliberate historical reasons.

Geographers and policy makers can distinguish between places with respect to the number of inhabitants or the economic and planological functions within a larger area.

The second urban network in the Netherlands is known as Brabantstad, a partnership of the Brabant "Big 5": Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda, 's-Hertogenbosch and Helmond.