Groningen Province

Groninga (in Dutch, Groningen; in Groningese dialect, Grönnen or Grun'n; in Frisian, Grinslân) is one of the twelve provinces that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Like the other provinces, it is governed by a commissioner or commissioner appointed by the monarch and a legislative chamber elected by universal suffrage. The capital is the city of Groningen. It is bordered by the provinces of Drenthe and Friesland, the German Land of Lower Saxony, and the Wadden Sea.

The predominant sources of income are agriculture and natural gas extraction, mainly in the village of Slochteren. Extraction sometimes causes small earth tremors.

Also known as Stad en Ommelanden, meaning "city and surrounding lands". Some Groningans speak Low Saxon dialects.

History

Groningen originally belonged to Friesland. Later, in the year 785, it would become part of the kingdoms of the Franks in the Merovingian era. Charlemagne assigned the Christianization of these lands to Ludgero.

In the 11th century, the city of Groningen belonged to the Archbishopric of Utrecht.

During the Middle Ages, the city of Groningen was a city state that exercised its power over the bordering territories of Ommelanden. In the XIV century, it was part of the Hanseatic League. Over the next few years Groningen expanded its influence, to the point of practically completely control the present province of Friesland.

1652 Map of the city of Groningen and its fortifications.

Municipalities

Until 1990, Groningen was characterized by a large number of small municipalities. In that year, a major reorganization drastically reduced their number, which remained at 25, although it was still relatively high in terms of its population: the average in Groningen in 2007 was 22,900 inhabitants per municipality, 16,300 if the city of Groningen, when the national average per municipality was around 37,000 inhabitants. On January 1, 2010, the former municipalities of Reiderland, Winschoten and Scheemda merged to create the new Oldambt, bringing the number of municipalities to 23, reduced to 20 after the municipal redevelopment of January 1, 2018, by the that the former municipalities of Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Menterwolde and Slochteren were merged to create the new Midden-Groningen and the former municipalities of Bellingwedde and Vlagtwedde were merged to create the new Westerwolde. Reduced to 12 after the municipal redevelopment of January 1, 2019, two years later the municipality of Eemsdelta was created through the merger of Appingedam, Delfzijl and Loppersum, finally leaving the number of municipalities in the following ten:

Geography

Groningen is drained by numerous rivers and short channels, including the Ems, Hoen, Reit and Winschoten canals.

Demographics

Groningen is relatively sparsely populated. It has an area that is approximately 9% of the total area of the country, however its &&&&&&&&&0582944.& &&&&0582,944 inhabitants (Eurostat, 2019), represent 3.4% of the total population of the Netherlands.