About Holland
The Netherlands (sometimes commonly referred to as Holland) is 41,785 km² in size (about twice the size of New Jersey) with 30% of its land below sea level. More then 16 million people live here, including 1 million in Amsterdam and 1 million in Rotterdam. 91% of all people live in cities. 90% of its citizens are Dutch by birth. The other 10% are mostly from Morocco, Turkey and former colonies Suriname, Antilles and Indonesia. If you compare The Netherlands with other countries, our economy is prospering. There is little unemployment and a large social plan for people who are not able to work. Politically it is also very stable. Life is good, but because of this, materialism is prevalent with many people seeing no need for God.
There is freedom of speech and religion. Basically, there is freedom to live however you want. Increasingly this gives rise to clashes between basic rights like freedom of speech, anti-discrimination or freedom of religion. This ‘anti-discrimination’ stance sometimes threatens Christian values in the name of tolerance. Because The Netherlands has a great history as a Christian nation, a lot of people call themselves Christian. Of the 58% who consider themselves religious, 19% consider themselves Protestant and 29% Catholic. Though the percentage of people calling themselves religious is fairly stable, church attendance drops every year. Other surveys reveal that only 7% are actually “born-again” and have a personal relationship with God. The statistic for Islam stands at 5.4%, and this too is fairly stable recently. If current trends continue, researchers aspect 8% of the Dutch population to be Muslim bij 2050.
