Mystery solved: that is why Zoetermeer is not officially a city

Is Zoetermeer a city or village? Every Zoetermeer would say ‘city’. Not a crazy idea, just not entirely correct. Did you know that there are officially no more villages and towns in the Netherlands? This means that Zoetermeer is not a city either.

City rights have been abolished for more than two hundred years and Dutch law only concerns municipalities.

The fact that there is no longer any distinction between villages and cities was determined many years ago. In 1851 to be precise, through the Municipal Act that statesman Thorbecke created. Before that, a place was a city if it had been granted city rights. These rights and also the privileges were extinguished by the Municipal Act. This includes being allowed to levy tolls, making your own currency and the right to build a city wall.

Text continues below photo>

Unclear definition

Despite the fact that the term city or village no longer means anything in legal terms, everyone still uses these terms. How about that? There is no single definition, which means everyone interprets it differently.

“From a sociological point of view, a city is a core area of ​​a larger environment with an administrative, cultural and economic center,” says urban sociologist Linda Zuijderwijk. “It is a place where people live quite close together. Where there are public spaces such as squares and parks and where you can encounter strangers who are very different from you. This can be in all kinds of ways: someone who thinks very differently, someone with a different background or someone who votes differently. In a village there is generally more of a sense of community, you meet people you know more often and there are usually fewer differences between the residents. A city is also a place where there is room to express a shared opinion, for example through a demonstration.”

Minimum number of inhabitants

There are many people who think that the status of a city or village also has something to do with the number of inhabitants. Is that so? “Not from a sociological perspective,” says Linda. According to Pauline van Voorst, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, there is no minimum number of inhabitants for a city.

The definition of city is different from every point of view, because there is no longer an unambiguous definition. Of course you can call Zoetermeer a city, but officially it is a municipality.