The comparative development of regions in the Netherlands, 1820–2010

This chapter discusses long-term regional growth patterns in the Netherlands since 1820. A historical analysis of regional development in the Netherlands can be carried out on the basis of population census data from 1830 onwards, combined with reconstructions and estimations of regional income. For the period 1820–1950, no official regional GDP data have ever been published, but there are estimations for specific years available from various sources. The chapter aims to connect data for the period before 1950 with published regional GDP accounts from 1950 onwards. The pre-1950 regional income estimations are based on reconstructions by economic historians and on pioneering work of researchers from the Central Bureau of Statistics Netherlands for the interwar and post-war period. Post-Second World War industrialization and regional cohesion policies maintained manufacturing employment at high levels during the 1950s and 1960s, also in the peripheral parts of the country