General

On 1 January 2005 the province of Groningen was home to 575,234 people, with 179,185 of them living in the municipality of Groningen itself. Most of the Province’s residents are between the ages of 20 and 50. Groningen is the provincial capital. Other larger places include Hoogezand and Stadskanaal. The province has an overall area of 2,968 km² (2340 land and 628 water). The population density is 242 inhabitants km². The potential working population is 395,144. There are 31,342 business establishments.

The most important branches of industry are
• extraction and distribution of natural gas
• starch/starch derivatives
• sugar, paper and board/paper and cardboard products
• basic chemistry
• basic metals sector
• shipbuilding

There are around 125 companies employing more than 100 people.
Total number of companies: 28.800

The biggest companies (employing more than 500 people) are:
• AVEBE
• Essent Kabelcom
• Atos Origin
• Kappa PPG Industries Fiber Glass
• Nederlandse Gasunie
• Philips
• Hazewinkelpers
• Akzo Nobel
• SCA Hygiëne Products
• Aldel
• TPG Post
• KPN Telecom

Business dynamic in the province of Groningen (2002)
Number of establishments 26264
Founded 2373 (9%)
Discontinued 1772 (6.7%)
Growth balance 601 (2.3%)
Roads network in km: 733
Number of museums: 82

Digital villages and cities in the province of Groningen
www.martinistad.net/groningen/steden_dorpen

All place names of the municipalities in the province of Groningen: http://home.planet.nl/~pagklein/gemeente/groningen.html

All basic information needed to start a company www.startbedrijf.nl

More facts and figures can be found at:
Noordelijke Ontwikkelings Maatschappij [‘Northern Development Company’]: www.nom.nl

Portal for the labour market: www.arbeidsmarktgroningen.nl

Province of Groningen: www.provinciegroningen.nl

Business information centre (Bedrijvenloket) municipality of Groningen: www.groningen.nl/ondernemen

Chamber of Commerce: www.groningen.kvk.nl

Economic news on Groningen www.gic.nl

Not all of these sites are in Dutch!