The Netherlands are bordered at the east by Germany and Belgium is at the south.
The West Frisian Islands lie offshore in the north.

The Netherlands are one of Europe's smallest and most densely populated countries as the facts box down will prove. Trade, industry, intensive agricultural land use, and land reclamations provide for a high standard of living.

The name is derived from the Dutch word neder meaning "low," and the term Low Lands is used collectively for Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, a reference to the general low-lying nature of the land.

Capital: Amsterdam
Seat of government: The Hague
Official name: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
Kingdom: the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles
Former colonies: Indonesia, Surinam
Other colonies: Manhattan, Macao, South Africa
Dutch is spoken in: the Netherlands, Belgium, Surinam, Netherlands Antilles, Indonesia, South Africa.

State form: Constitutional monarchy
Head of state: Queen Beatrix (hereditary title)
Government type: parliamentary democracy
Current coalition in government: PvdA (social democrats), VVD (liberal), D'66 (social liberal) Head of government: Prime Minister Wim Kok (appointed by the Head of State)
Legislature: Bicameral States-General
First Chamber (Senate): 75 members
Second Chamber (Parliament): 150 members
Political divisions: 12 provinces
Political parties in order of representation: PvdA (socialist democrats), VVD (liberal), CDA (christian democrat), D'66 (democrat liberal), Groen Links (green party), SP (socialist party), GPV ,(protestant), RPF (reformed protestant), SGP (reformed protestant), CD (fascists. Well, they they aren't but they are) and many more even smaller factions.
Voting qualifications: All citizens of the Kingdom of the Netherlands age 18 and older
Armed services: 74,400 troops; professional staff (this has only been the last couple fo years. Before that there was general conscription for all men 18 and older).

Flat as a pan cake, that's what basically describes the Netherlands. Great differences in elevation between the various parts in the country, therefore, are absent. Areas located in the north and west at less than 1 m (3.2 ft) above sea level, from the more elevated "High Netherlands" in the south and east, which reaches an altitude of 322.5 m (1,057.8 ft) in the extreme southeast. Approximately a third of the entire country lies below sea level at high tide. Another 25% is so low-lying that it would be subject to inundation if it were not for the surrounding sand dunes (great beaches, but not very hot in Summer) and dikes and the regular pumping of excess water. An area surrounded by dikes where the water table can be controlled is called a polder . The lowest point is 6.7 m (22 ft) below mean sea level, immediately to the northeast of Rotterdam.

Soil
The soils of the High Netherlands are predominantly sandy with admixtures of gravel in places. These soils require heavy additions of humus and fertilizers to be productive. They are considered to be 'poor', and yet they host the bits of forest the Netherlands got left (less than 5% of the entire land area) and the highest number of rare animals/plants.

The soils of the polders, by contrast, consist mainly of sea clay and bog peat; the clays are exceptionally fertile once desalination and drainage have taken place.

Area: 33,939 km.²(13,104 mls²)
Highest altitude: 322.5 m. (1057.8 ft.)
Lowest point: Prins Alexander Polder - 6.7 m. (-22 ft.)

Drainage
Three of Europe's most important waterways - the Meuse (Maas), Rhine (Rijn), and Scheldt (Schelde)- enter the sea through a common delta in the southwest.
There, the Rhine divides into three major distributaries: the Walloon (Waal), Lek, and IJssel.
A number of small lakes dot the polderlands, filling hollows from which peat was once removed for fuel until well into the twentieth century. A network of canals and dikes crisscrosses the flat polderlands to provide an artificial drainage system that keeps the land dry. In the past the famous windmills were primarily used for these purposes, their secod purose was the grind weat and other corns into flour.
In ancient times floodwaters regularly invaded the lowlands, forcing people to build their homes on higher grounds, or they simply constructed artificial mounds (terpen). Such mounds can still be found in the province of Frysland.
In the Middle Ages the first dikes were built, enclosing lower-lying polders in which groundwater levels could be controlled to some extent. Dikes in those days weren't very reliable, and it happened often that dikes would breach and the lands flooded anyway.
In the 16th and 17th centuries windmills were first used to pump excess water from the polders, and many small western lakes were transformed into dry land. Steam pumps, and later diesel and electric pumps, made possible the reclamation of increasingly larger areas.

In 1853 the Haarlemermeer was drained to create 162 sq km (63 sq mi) of new land. The closing of the Zuiderzee ((IJsselmeer), started in 1920 with a 32 km (20 mls) long dike that closed it off providing 2,050 sq km (792 sq mi) of new land in five great polders - Wieringermeer (completed in 1930), the Northeast Polder (1945), East Flevoland (1957), South Flevoland (1968), and Markerwaard (begun 1963). Due to the freswater influx coming from river IJssel the salt water conditions of the former Zuiderzee gradually transformed in to freshwater conditions.
The newest province, Flevoland, consisting of East and South Flevoland together with the Northeast polder, was founded in 1986.

Because of its small size and low elevations, the country's regional climatic differences are negligible. Temperatures average 17 deg C (63 deg F) in July and 2 deg C (35 deg F) in January.
Precipitation averages 762 mm (30 in) a year, is evenly distributed, and varies little from year to year, although lately extreme rainfall has been measured (1998: almost double average annual rain fall, 1200 mm = 472 in).
Frontal storms can bring rapid weather changes at any time but occur most frequently in the fall.

The Dutch are a homogeneous people of ancient Germanic origin, with some Celtic admixture. The most distinctive indigenous subgroup are the Frisians in the north.
Principal immigrant subgroups include South Moluccans, Surinamese, and foreign workers from Mediterranean countries (in the fiftees Italians, later on mainly from Morocco and Turkey).

Dutch, a Germanic language, is the official language; Frisian, a separate Germanic language, is taught along with Dutch in the schools of Frysland.