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| | Background The Dutch United Provinces declared their independence from Spain in 1579; during the 17th century, they became a leading seafaring and commercial power, with settlements and colonies around the world. After a 20-year French occupation, a Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I, but suffered invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member of NATO and the EEC (now the EU), and participated in the introduction of the euro in 1999. The People | Population | 16,570,613 (July 2007 est.) | | Age structure | 0-14 years: 17.8% (male 1,505,931/female 1,436,532)
15-64 years: 67.8% (male 5,683,877/female 5,557,745)
65 years and over: 14.4% (male 1,015,731/female 1,370,797) (2007 est.) | | Life expectancy at birth | total population: 79.11 years
male: 76.52 years
female: 81.82 years (2007 est.) | Population growth rate | 0.464% (2007 est.) | | Ethnic groups | Dutch 83%, other 17% (of which 9% are non-Western origin mainly Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese, and Indonesians) (1999 est.) | | Religions | Roman Catholic 31%, Dutch Reformed 13%, Calvinist 7%, Muslim 5.5%, other 2.5%, none 41% (2002) | | Population below poverty line | 10.5% (2005) | | People living with HIV/AIDS | 19,000 (2001 est.) | | HIV/AIDS - deaths | less than 100 (2003 est.) | | Mobile phones in use | 15.834 million (2005) | | Internet users | 14.544 million (2006) |
Data (Background & The People) provided by The World Factbook |
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