There are twelve provinces (Dutch: provincies [proːˈvɪnsis] ⓘ or provinciën [proːˈvɪnsijə(n)] ⓘ; sing.

If water is excluded, Gelderland is the largest province by land area at 4,960 km2 (1,915 sq mi).

This organisation promotes the common interests of the provinces in the national government of the Netherlands in The Hague.

Essent, which was originally owned by six provinces and more than a hundred municipalities, was sold for around 9.3 billion euros.

Each of these "Netherlands" had a high degree of autonomy, cooperating with each other mainly on defense and foreign relations, but otherwise keeping to their own affairs.

On 1 January 1796, under the Batavian Republic, Drenthe and Staats-Brabant became the eighth and ninth provinces of the Netherlands.

During the Batavian Republic, the Netherlands was from 1798 to 1801 completely reorganised into eight new departments, most named after rivers, inspired by the French revolutionary example, in an attempt to do away with the old semi-autonomous status of the provinces.

When the Netherlands finally did become fully part of France in 1810, the departments of the kingdom and their borders were largely maintained, with some joined.

The 17 provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands were for a significant part based on the former French departments and their borders, in particular in what would later become Belgium.