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The Randstad is a conurbation in the Netherlands. It consists of the four largest Dutch cities, and the surrounding areas. With its 7.5 million inhabitants (almost half of the population of the Netherlands; when other conurbations connected to this area are also taken into consideration, it would have a population a little over 10 million, almost 2/3 of the entire Dutch population) it is one of the largest conurbations in Europe. Its main cities are Almere, Amsterdam, Delft, Dordrecht, Gouda, Haarlem, Hilversum, Leiden, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Zoetermeer. Other centres include Alphen aan den Rijn, Amstelveen, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hoofddorp, Katwijk, Leidschendam, Nieuwegein, Purmerend, Rijswijk, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Voorburg, and Zaanstad.

The cities of the Randstad more or less form a crescent or chain. This shape has given the Randstad its name (rand means rim or edge and stad means city or town). The area that is enclosed by the larger cities is called the Green Heart (Groene Hart).

Over the last few decades, a major topic in the Randstad is the "conflict" between the cities and the towns in between. These towns are usually much greener than the cities, they house many commuters that work in the cities and the former strongly depend on the latter for facilities such as hospitals and large scale entertainment. Cities need more space to expand, yet the towns fear losing their identity and autonomy.

Another 'hot issue' about the Randstad, is the question about its borders. Nobody can tell where the Randstad begins, and where it ends. Some will say that only the four biggest cities of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) are part of this Metropole, others would say that areas such as Alkmaar-Hoorn, Arnhem-Nijmegen and Eindhoven-Tilburg-Breda-Den Bosch are also part of this conurbation. All of these conurbations are self-sufficient areas, but for many things, they still rely upon the bigger cities.

(For further details: see the articles of Global City, Agglomeration Conurbation and Metropolitan Area).

The Groene Hart (Green Heart) is another hotly debated issue closely related to the conflict between cities and towns. On the one hand people feel this large and relatively sparsely populated area should be protected, as it is considered a valuable rural area amongst cities. On the other hand, many people enjoy living in the relatively quiet environment near their places of work and the facilities the Randstad provides.

Recently, Dutch planologists have started to refer to the Randstad as Deltametropool [1]. Deltametropolis actually consists of two large metropolitan areas:

1. The Noordvleugel (North Wing, with a population of around 2.5 million people), consisting of the Haarlem and IJmuidenconurbations in the west, Amsterdam at the centre and Almere and the Gooi-area in the east. The conurbation of Utrecht (pop. around an extra 1 million) could also be considered to be part of the North Wing. The main center is however clearly Amsterdam, which could - as such - be considered a classical centralistic metropole.

2. The Zuidvleugel (South Wing, with a population of around 3.5 million people), stretching some 60 kilometers from Dordrecht in the South East to Leiden in the North. The main conurbations are the Rotterdam and The Hague areas. The virtual centre of the Zuidvleugel lies in between these two major cities, near Delft. The first steps toward this development are currently being taken with the construction of a new fast light-rail connection between Rotterdam and The Hague: RandstadRail. A long delayed extension of the western A4-motorway from the south of Delft to Rotterdam has also been put back on the administrative agenda, creating a second connection between Rotterdam, via The Hague, to Amsterdam.

A colloquial joke is: "There is only one Dutch city... the Randstad"

• List of European metropolitan areas by GRP

• Regio Randstad official website (English)
• Official Zuidvleugel website (Dutch)