The Netherlands is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The monarch is the head of state, at present King William-Alexander. His wife is Queen Maxima. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague.The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces.

The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland) borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level.Significant land area has been gained through land reclamation and preserved through an elaborate system of polders and dikes. Most of the country is very flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast and several low-hill ranges in the central parts.

The Netherlands has an estimated population of 16,785,403 (as of April 2013) The majority of the population of the Netherlands are ethnically Dutch. A 2005 estimate counted: 80.9% Dutch, 2.4% Indonesian, 2.4% German, 2.2% Turkish, 2.0% Surinamese, 2.0% Moroccan, 0.8% Antillean and Aruban, and 6.0% others.The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, with an average height of 1.81 metres (5 ft 11 in) for adult males and 1.67 metres (5 ft 6 in) for adult females. 

he Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Netherlands is divided into twelve administrative regions, called provinces, each under a Governor. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten).

The official language is Dutch, which is spoken by a majority of the inhabitants. Another official language is Frisian, which is spoken in the northern province of Friesland. There is a tradition of learning foreign languages in the Netherlands: the majority of the population has a good knowledge of English.

While around 45% of the Dutch population is not member of any religious community, the other 55% are distributed over a diversity of religions. 43,4% of the Dutch population is affiliated with a Christian church. The largest group, 26,6%, is Roman Catholic. The rest is distributed over a multitude of Protestant churches. The largest of which is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. Some 12% of the population is member of this Church. Smaller Churches have either been the result of conflicts within the Calvinist Church or been imported, mainly from the United States. The remaining 10% of the population is member of another religion, including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Sources:
Wikipedia: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands#cite_note-brit-3 (December 2011)
CBS: www.cbs.nl