The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The highest hilltop is the Pic Paradis (424 m, 1,391 ft) in the centre of a hill chain on the French side.

It is commonly believed that Christopher Columbus named the island in honour of Saint Martin of Tours when he encountered it on his second voyage of discovery.

However, he actually applied the name to the island now called Nevis when he anchored offshore on 11 November 1493, the feast day of Saint Martin.

Other arguments against unification of the island are that neither France nor the Netherlands would allow it and that both sides would require full independence to achieve it.

[19] On 31 August 1990, the "Unity Flag" of Saint Martin was adopted at the Preliminary Conference on National Symbols at the Philipsburg Jubilee Library, in Sint Maarten.

This flag was created to represent the people of both halves of the island and the unification of the latter, and is hoisted today on some houses and sometimes by churches and religious groups in Saint Martin.

[3] In August 2020, when restrictions and controls were added to the Saint Martin–Sint Maarten border to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, some protesters against these measures flew this flag with them.

Because the island is located within the tropics, it is regularly threatened by Atlantic hurricane activity in the late summer and early fall.

On 6 September 2017 the island was hit by Hurricane Irma (Category 5 at landfall), which caused widespread and significant damage, estimated at $3 billion, to buildings and infrastructure.

[30][31][32] France's Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, said on 8 September 2017 that most of the schools were destroyed on the French half of the island.

[34][35] Some days after the storm had abated, a survey by the Dutch Red Cross estimated that nearly a third of the buildings in Sint Maarten had been destroyed and that over 90 per cent of structures on the island had been damaged.

The first census since Hurricane Irma on the Dutch side of the island is scheduled to take place in October 2022.

[44] The island's culture is a blend of its African, French, British, Dutch, Amerindian, and Asian heritage.

Although each side's culture is influenced by their respective administering countries, they share enough similar heritage and traditions that it can be difficult to tell where Saint-Martin ends and Sint Maarten begins.

But during the colonial period, the British settlers and several military dominations left their idiom as the main language spoken on the island, and have made a large impact on St. Martin's culture.

The island also has small Jewish, Seventh-day Adventist, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, and Rastafari communities.

St. Martin's Dutch side is known for its festive nightlife, beaches, jewellery, drinks made with native rum-based guavaberry liquors, and casinos.

Among the leading cultural artists of the island are Youth Waves, music band; Isidore "Mighty Dow" York, kaisonian, panman; Roland Richardson, Impressionist painter; Ruby Bute, painter; Nicole de Weever, dancer and Broadway star; Lasana M. Sekou, poet, author, independence advocate; Drisana Deborah Jack, multimedia visual artist, poet; Clara Reyes, choreographer; and Tanny and The Boys, string band music group.

[53] The official currency of Saint Martin is the euro, while Sint Maarten uses the Netherlands Antillean guilder, pegged at 1.79 per US dollar.

Passport controls are also exercised when taking the ferry from Marigot or Princess Juliana International Airport to Anguilla.

In 1994, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and France signed the Franco-Dutch treaty on Saint Martin border controls, which allows for joint Franco-Dutch border controls on so-called "risk flights" arriving from off-island and only admitting foreigners having permission to travel on both sides of the island.

The Dutch side has expressed concern that new and tighter French visa requirements would harm their tourism income.