Groningen (province)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Province of Groningen
Provincie Groningen


Flag	Coat of Arms

Capital

Groningen

Queen's Commissioner

J.G.M. (Hans) Alders

Religion (1999)

Protestant 29%
Catholic 7%

Area
• Land
• Water

2,336 km² (8th)
623 km²

Population (2005)
• Total
• Density

575,234 (9th)
246/km² (9th)

Anthem

Grunnens Laid

ISO

NL-GR

Official website

www.provinciegroningen.nl

Map of the Netherlands, with red dots marking the capitals of the provinces and black dots marking other notable cities

Groningen pronunciation (help·info) is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands with a typical Low Saxon dialect called Gronings (Grönnegs / Grunnegs in Gronings regional language), with local nuances. Nowadays, many inhabitants of the province do not speak the dialect, especially in the city of Groningen where many outsiders have moved.

In the east it borders the German region Niedersachsen, in the south with Drenthe, in the west with Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea.

Land use in Groningen is mainly agricultural, it has a large natural gas field near Slochteren.

East Groningen has been the scene of a particularly fierce class struggle in the 19th and 20th century. Here is the only municipality (Beerta) where the Dutch Communist party has ever had a mayor (Hanneke Jagersma).

The capital of the province is the city of Groningen.