Main Information

Drenthe
•    The province of Drenthe is the fourth smallest province of the Netherlands (2.680 km 2, 6% of total Dutch area). It has 490,870 inhabitants (30-11-2009, CBS Stat line) (3.0% of total Dutch pop.). Its regional gross domestic product (GDP) of ?11.24b is 2.2% of Dutch GDP. Annual growth rate of regional GDP was 3.7% between 2000-2008, which is below Dutch average for the same period (4.5%).  Most of the employment and business is concentrated in the "Zuidas" ("south axis"), which runs from the cities of Meppel to Emmen (also running through De Wolden, Hoogeveen, and Coevorden). Furthermore, the provinces Groningen and Drenthe share the economic zone Groningen (city) - Assen (capital of Drenthe) - Winschoten.
•    The major sector in Drenthe is industry and energy supply, accounting for 30% of the total production (in ?) for 2006. The business services sector accounted for 13% in that same year. With shares of 8-9% of the overall production, the sectors construction, health, and trade and repair are next in line. Leading areas identified as part of the national ' Peaks in the Delta' (PiD) initiative to support regional strengths, are: energy, water, sensor technology, agribusiness, life sciences (LS), and tourism.
•    Of the Northern provinces' (Drenthe, Friesland, and Drenthe) regional strengths, sensor technology is most prominently represented in Drenthe. Major companies in this area are Dacom (global leading developer/supplier of production process monitoring systems for agriculture companies) and Rohill (communication technology).
At 0.7% of GDP, Drenthe has the lowest research and development (R&D) intensity of all of the Dutch provinces (national average 1.83%) together with Friesland and Zeeland.  This can be explained by the fact that the province has no research universities. The colleges of applied sciences, Stenden University (with in total 2970 students and 834 staff members (60% educative staff and 40% supportive staff) , does have branches in three cities in Drenthe.