Main Information

Zeeland
Zeeland’s Basic Facts
Number of inhabitants: 380,897
Number of municipalities: 13
Number of km2: 2,993.89
Potential working population (aged 15-64): 245,871 = 64.6%
Number of established businesses: 28,700
Employment according to sector:
Agriculture & Fisheries: 6.6%
Industry: 21.7%
Services Sector: 46.7%
Public Administration, Education, Healthcare: 25.1%
The Province of Zeeland is the most southwesterly province of the Netherlands and consists of 1787 km 2 of land (which is 6.0 % of total Dutch area). Most of the land consists of (former) islands, now linked together by dams and bridges. Within the province there is still 1147 km 2 of water. The major sectors of Zeeland’s economy – agriculture, basic industry , harbours/ports and tourism – are all influenced by global economic developments. The following aspects play an important role:
• the special situation in regard to the sea, with its deep seaports;
• the enormous amount of water for recreation and inland navigation;
• the agricultural areas and horticultural complexes;
• good infrastructure (roads, train connections and the Westerschelde Tunnel];
• tourist attractions;
• the great variety of medium and small-sized businesses;
• Zeeland’s own energy production;
• good cooperation with Flanders, as well as with the surrounding provinces of the Netherlands.
With a Gross Regional Domestic Product of just under ?10b Zeeland is responsible for 2.0% of Dutch GDP. GDP/inhabitant is below Dutch average, the annual growth rate of regional GDP was with 4.7% in the period 2000-2008 a little above Dutch average (4.5%).
The province can be described as rural. Although services are, as elsewhere in The Netherlands, the main economic sector, agriculture with 6.6% employment (Dutch average 2.9%) and industry (21.7% employment against 19.2% NL-average) are relatively important.  Part of the agricultural sector is also the fisheries activities, which are not large in size, but important to the international image of Zeeland (shellfish, esp. mussels). Within the services sector the care economy and tourism are the main sectors. Vlissingen also has a fairly large container terminal. The industry is for a large part heavy chemical industry around Vlissingen and the "Kanaalzone" south of Terneuzen. Large companies are e.g. Dow Chemical, Broomchemie (both at Terneuzen), Thermphos (Vlissingen) and Delta Power company (with a nuclear power plant and a coal fired power plant near Vlissingen).