Flevoland
Flevoland is the youngest and twelfth province of the Netherlands with Lelystad as its capital. Located in the centre of the country, at the location of the former Zuiderzee, it was conquered on the sea in the last century. The main cities were only founded in the 1970s  and it was not until January 1st, 1986 that the province itself was established. With an area of 2.412,30 km2 (5,8 % of the total surface of The Netherlands), Flevoland is  the tenth largest province of the Netherlands.
Flevoland has approximately 387.698 inhabitants, which is 2,3% of the total Dutch population. The Gross Regional Domestic Product of Flevoland is ?7,7b (1,5% of the Dutch GDP). The low GRDP/inhabitant is caused by the large number of inhabitants of Flevoland that commute outside the region. The annual growth rate of Flevoland's GDP was 7,4% in the period 2000-2008, a lot higher than the Dutch average (4,5%).

In Flevoland, the highest employment rates are in the services sector (135,6 thousand people), followed by the public sector (75%). The lowest employment rates are in construction (4,7%) and in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (3,8%). Main cities are Almere, the fast growing 7 th largest city in the Netherlands (almost 200.000 inhabitants) and Lelystad (75.000 inhabitants). 7% of Flevoland’s labour force is unemployed.
Flevoland boasts numerous innovative businesses. In recent years, the level of
innovation has risen to 39% of all Flevoland’s operational businesses. These
companies’ innovation efforts focus on services (58%), followed by the
penetration of new markets (30%).