Urban areas

There are 22 urban areas in the Netherlands, accounting for 55 percent of the Dutch population. The urban areas consist of a central municipality (the central city) and a number of surrounding municipalities.
An urban area is a conglomeration of one or more urban agglomerations and the surrounding rural areas, which are bound together by certain relationships. The areas are delineated mainly along the lines of the regional labour market and relationships on the regional housing markets. The urban area of Heerlen, for example consists of municipalities Heerlen, Kerkrade, Landgraaf, Brunssum, Onderbanken, Nuth, Simpelveld and Voerendaal.

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