Culture across the regions

Funds, diversification, and the question: for whom?

The National Culture Funds are also working more visibly on regional infrastructure and distribution. The Fund for Cultural Participation is committed to this through the program Fund in the Region to increase cultural participation throughout the Netherlands, including the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, and wants to “distribute” its own resources “more fairly”..

Other funds give substance to this in their own way. The Netherlands Film Fund supports talent through regional talent hubs, and further expanded these regional nodes in 2025. Moreover, through Studio Caribe, it supports filmmakers in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom to be able to be active “in every corner and region”.. The Performing Arts Fund explicitly links its mission to a vital performing arts landscape throughout the Netherlands and in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. It emphasizes in its policy plan that it aims to harness the regional strength of organizations and makers and strengthen the local/regional development and production climate.

At the same time, 'fair' is not an unambiguous criterion: is it about giving everyone the same amount, providing extra support to places with limited offerings, or distributing according to need (for example, based on the number of inhabitants and the facilities already available)? And 'distribution' only truly reveals something about culture in the region if we also consider differences within regions, the border areas between regions, and regional centers and peripheries. Reach and accessibility are not only related to distance to offerings, but also to the question of which creators and communities have access to networks, support, and platforms. Therefore, it is relevant to also critically examine who does and does not benefit from regional investments. The distribution of performances and facilities says something about where offerings end up, but not automatically about who can create and progress.

Measuring and monitoring: what do we see and what don't we?

Those caveats regarding regional distribution and its significance also touch upon the question of what we can and cannot measure in this regard. 'Distribution' and 'accessibility' are not one-to-one: where money and supply end up can be tracked to a certain extent via subsidies, venues, and performances, although, for example, the fate of the many project subsidies from the six National Culture Funds is by no means always known. Whether people can, but also want to, access the supply, and whether creators in all parts of the country have equal access to networks and resources, is much more difficult to demonstrate using national figures alone. In the national Culture Monitor, we can therefore primarily map the locations of the supply and components of the infrastructure: where production and presentation take place, and where cultural facilities are situated. Less visible are the routes on the demand side and the creators' side – and it is precisely these together that determine what regional distribution means in practice.

A growing monitoring landscape: from regional to national (and back)

The policy emphasis on the region calls for granular, comparable, and reusable data, where the local context remains important for interpretation and application. In 2025, for example, the second edition of the Culture and Heritage Monitor Gelderland launched online, with a dashboard in which indicators at provincial, regional, and municipal levels can be consulted and downloaded in conjunction, modeled after the national Culture Monitor. The monitor is also available in North Brabant. Value of Culture further developed, with an online dashboard that builds partly on the database of the national Culture Monitor and contains additional provincial and municipal data.

In parallel, the Fund for Cultural Participation and the Council of Twelve launched Cultural Netherlands Mapped in late 2025: a multi-year collaboration on a national map of cultural practice, building on Cultural South Holland in MapThe goal is for the dashboard to go online in 2027.. The FCP also provides insight into provincial amateur art practice, via a dashboard of local initiatives supported through the project Strengthening National Infrastructure for Amateur Art (Vliak) 2026-2028, launched in 2026. The more initiatives included in this, the more insights it will offer into amateur art practice throughout the Netherlands in the coming years. The LKCA is also working on monitoring studies towards cultural practice and the provision of cultural education and amateur art in both the European and Caribbean Netherlands.

Precisely because more and more monitors and dashboards are emerging, alignment and harmonization are becoming more important: locally, context is needed to interpret figures, while a national overview helps to compare patterns and identify knowledge gaps. Through the Cultuurmonitor, we primarily aim to be the place where insights from various monitors converge. By gathering information, placing it side by side, and better aligning it, we want to provide as complete a picture of the cultural sector as possible, with room for local and regional perspectives.

Below, we zoom in on what we *do* know about regional distribution based on the available data in the Culture Monitor: indicators regarding cultural capital (infrastructure and offerings), social capital (attendance and practice), and economic capital (including financial flows). This serves as a stepping stone to eventually gain a better understanding of issues concerning accessibility for both creators and the public.

Cultural offer

A diverse range of culture can be found spread across the Netherlands. Via the Culture Monitor Dashboard The amount of offerings in each province is mapped out, as well as how this relates to the number of inhabitants. In addition, cultural offerings at the regional (COROP) and municipal levels can also be consulted.

The concentration of cultural offerings over the years and in absolute terms is highest in North and South Holland. In South Holland there are, among others most bookstore locations en library branches can be found, while most of them are in North Hollandcinemas and film theatres, museums, art galleries and exhibition spaces en stages are located. Due to the high population and the presence of the three largest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague), the high concentration of cultural offerings in these two provinces not surprising . If we look at the number of inhabitants, the ranking of provinces changes. North and South Holland do not always have the most cultural facilities per person. They are also not always at the top in terms of visits and cash flows. You can read more about this below.

The size of the cultural offering varies per province. For example, Friesland has almost as many protected city and village views as in South Holland (64 and 65 in 2025 respectively). In the northeast of the Netherlands there are also relatively many archaeological national monuments to be found, nearly half of the total number of national archaeological monuments in the Netherlands are located in Friesland, Groningen, and Gelderland combined. By far the most can be found in Gelderland, namely 294 in 2025. The Heritage Atlas Data from the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) shows that the national archaeological monuments in Gelderland are mainly located around the Veluwe. Gelderland is followed by Groningen (214) and Friesland (197). When looking at the number of arts and culture festivals in 2025, the high position of North Brabant stands out (213), ahead of South Holland (207) and just behind North Holland (229), but well ahead of number four Gelderland (122).

Featured: North Brabant
In the Value for Culture from 2024, alongside a provincial statue, there is for the first time also a municipal image can be found for the seven major municipalities in Brabant. These municipal profiles discuss the municipalities of Eindhoven, Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Breda, Helmond, Oss, and Roosendaal separately. The Brabant M5 municipalities—Bergen op Zoom, Maashorst, Meierijstad, Oosterhout, and Waalwijk—are grouped together in a single profile. For instance, Oss has a relatively large number of library branches, Breda many national monuments, Den Bosch many visual arts venues, and Bergen op Zoom and Meierijstad have many museums. Eindhoven spends the most on culture in total and per capita. Conversely, Tilburg has the fewest unsubsidized cultural venues.

Cultural offer per inhabitant
In 2024 there will be approximately eight in Zeeland, Groningen and Drenthe libraries per 100.000 inhabitants. In North and South Holland this is four and Flevoland three. In absolute terms, the most activities are organised per inhabitant in Utrecht. The number cinemas and film theatres per capita is furthermore highest in Zeeland, North Holland, and Groningen, while South Holland, Flevoland, and Drenthe have relatively the fewest screening locations. The number museums per capita is largest in Flevoland, Zeeland, and Friesland, while it lies relatively low in North Brabant and South Holland. Cultural South Holland in Map In addition to the museum definition used in the Cultuurmonitor, has used a supplementary indicator with a broader definition, which also includes organizations designated as museums by Erfgoedhuis Zuid-Holland. According to that broader definition, many more municipalities within the province have one or more museums, and the number of museums per inhabitant is also higher.

The Dashboard also contains more detailed figures about the cultural offering in the provinces, for example the number performing arts performances, activities in public libraries or the number film cloths en –chairs.

In early 2026, the Cabinet aimed for an amendment to the Library Act to introduce a duty of care for municipalities and for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. This is intended to ensure that every municipality has and maintains a library.. The important role that public libraries play locally can be seen, for example, in the many activities they organize annually, particularly regarding education and promoting reading. This number of activities has increased since the new Library Act increased further every year from 2015 and nearly doubled between 2019 and 2024.. Between 2023 and 2024, the numbers in various provinces also rose sharply again. At the same time, we see a striking decline in Utrecht and Zeeland in 2024 compared to the previous year (see for more on this). the Literature domain page).

Featured: Gelderland
In the Gelderland Culture and Heritage Monitor, in 2025, in addition to provincial developments and position, for the first time also on regional level Information has been gathered. This was done in six regional profiles: Rivierenland, Gelderse Stedendriehoek, Groene Metropoolregio, Foodvalley (Cultuurvallei), Noord-Veluwe, and the Achterhoek. Furthermore, these regions were compared with each other based on the number of inhabitants. This shows that there are relatively many cinemas in Foodvalley and the Achterhoek, and fewer in the Gelderse Stedendriehoek. In absolute terms, the Groene Metropoolregio has the most museums and libraries, but in relative terms it ranks only fifth, whereas Noord-Veluwe ranks first. Rivierenland, in turn, has the most national monuments and town and village landscapes.

In addition to these regional profiles, the monitor also contains in-depth research towards Heritage, in particular 23 heritage institutions affiliated with the Apeldoorn Heritage Platform and towards so-called multifunctional cultural organizations (MFCOs). The research into the heritage sector in Apeldoorn shows that including heritage initiatives provides a more layered picture of the state of culture in the province. It is also entirely possible to collect information from these often smaller initiatives (primarily volunteer organizations) in a structured manner.

Culture visits

In 2024, Dutch museums were visited approximately 31,9 million times, of which more than 19,1 million visits can be attributed to the 227 museums in North and South Holland. The two provinces together make up 37 percent of the total number of museums in the Netherlands, but are responsible for 60 percent of the total number of to visit a museum. We saw the same distribution previous years.

Cultural visits per capita
If we look at the cultural consumption of the inhabitants of a province, we see that it share of library members among the population varied from 16 percent in Limburg to 30 percent in Flevoland in 2024. In Groningen, on the other hand, the library is by far the most visited per capitaHowever, at the same time, there has been a steadily declining number of members since 2015, a decline visible throughout the country. Library attendance is lowest in Limburg, Zeeland, and North Brabant. This is particularly striking in Zeeland, given that the proportion of library members in this province is relatively high. HZ | Knowledge Centre for Zeeland Society concludes regarding the fact that people from Zeeland generally have to travel further to reach amenities than residents of other provinces (Cuyper et al. 2022). The province is therefore focusing on improved accessibility and public transport that will be available to residents and visitors seven days a week, all day long, by 2027.. Also unique in Zeeland is the high concentration of library bus stops, which are also part of it network of library facilities. More than half of all library bus stops in the Netherlands are for the Zeeland Library Buses.

The program performing arts attendance per capita was highest in North Holland in 2024, followed by Utrecht, South Holland, and Groningen. The number of movie visits per capita is highest in North Brabant, followed by Flevoland and then North Holland. Heritage practice According to the RCE Heritage Monitor, it is most practiced in Overijssel (43 percent of the population) and Groningen and Friesland (41 percent each).

Money flows

The Dutch government must ensure good conditions so that the Dutch population can participate in culture. To this end, the central government, the provinces, and the municipalities each provide separate funding to cultural institutions, both structural and incidental. In 2023 – the most recent year with figures on cultural spending from all three levels of government – ​​gave the government a total of certainly 3,96 billion spent on culture. Municipalities accounted for the largest share: together they spent 2,27 billion euros, approximately 60 percent of the total.

Empire
The central government spent 1,32 billion on culture in 2023. The total expenditure of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science on the BIS amounted to 518 million euros, 40 percent of the ministry's total culture budget. Of this, 242 million (47 percent) was granted directly to institutions and 276 million (53 percent) was spent via the National Culture Funds.

The budget for museums under the Heritage Act totaled 249,5 million euros in 2023. In addition, the care of monuments is included in the Heritage Act, for which 146,5 million euros was reserved. Together, this amounts to 396 million euros.

Over the years, the central government has spent an increasingly smaller percentage of its total budget on culture. While this amounted to 0,62 percent in 2005, it had fallen to 0,41 percent by 2023. As a result, the central government spent a total of 657 million euros less on culture in 2023 than had the 2005 percentage been maintained (see the theme page for more information). Culture and money flows).

Municipalities
According to research by Statistics Netherlands (2024), all Dutch municipalities together reported 2023 2,27 billion euros spent on cultureThat is the largest share of government spending on culture: approximately 60 percent. Municipalities therefore play an important role in the financing of culture.

On average, municipalities spent 127 euros per inhabitant on culture in 2023, compared to 108 euros in 2017. However, the 18 percent increase is lower than inflation during the same period (28 percent). The share of culture within total municipal expenditures also decreased, from 3,6 percent in 2017 to 3,2 percent in 2023. This fits within a longer trend: whereas municipalities spent 4,2 percent of their budget on culture in 2005, this has decreased by one percent since then. Due to this decrease, municipalities collectively spent 669 million euros less on culture in 2023 than they would have if they had maintained the 2005 percentage.

However, this varies by municipality. In 2023, the most was spent in the provinces of South Holland, North Holland, and North Brabant (550 million euros, 444 million euros, and 306 million euros, respectively). That is more than in previous years. Per capita, the municipalities in the provinces of North Holland (150 euros per capita), Groningen (149 euros per capita), and South Holland (145 euros per capita) spend the most on culture.

Municipalities such as Amsterdam (237 million euros), Rotterdam (177 million euros) and The Hague (137 million euros) spend the most money on culture. If you look at expenditure per inhabitant, Assen is at the top with 319 euros, followed by Heerlen (293 euros), Rotterdam (266 euros) and Amsterdam (258 euros).

Half of municipal cultural expenditure is made by municipalities with 150.000 inhabitants or more, while only three out of ten Dutch people live there. Due to their central function, these large municipalities have a higher number of cultural facilities with often a larger capacity and a catchment area that is larger than their own municipality. The average of municipal cultural costs in a province is therefore driven by the relatively high cultural costs of the large municipalities.

To obtain a complete picture of the distribution of public funds, it is therefore necessary to look not only at the provincial level but also at the individual municipality level. At the same time, there is an interplay in cultural expenditure between larger core municipalities and smaller peripheral municipalities. For instance, expenditure is high in The Hague, but much lower in the surrounding municipalities. However, as the VNG itself states, the extent to which a municipality fulfills a cultural center function must be determined on a municipality-by-municipality basis. Based on this, municipalities can develop policy. The VNG ring model, which visualizes the cultural infrastructure of municipalities, can assist in this process. In March 2026, the VNG presented an updated version of the model with two variants, one for municipalities with and one for municipalities without a cultural centre function (VNG 2026).

Province or State
In addition to municipalities and the central government, provinces naturally also bear cultural costs. Within provinces, we generally observe a strong interplay between municipal and provincial cultural costs: where the average cultural costs of municipalities within a province are higher than average, we generally see a lower item for culture on the province's balance sheet. And vice versa. For instance, in 2023, the provinces of North and South Holland contributed the least per capita to culture, while the provinces of Friesland, Zeeland, and Limburg contributed the most. The implementation of the cost distribution (between the central government, provinces, and municipalities) varies by province.

When you add up the expenditures of municipalities and provinces, the province of Groningen consistently ranks at the top when it comes to expenditure per capita. In 2023, the province and municipalities together spent an average of 203 euros per capita on culture. In Gelderland, this figure was the lowest at 118 euros per capita. Unlike municipalities and the central government, provinces have not reduced their spending on culture since 2005, but have actually increased it slightly. Compared to eighteen years earlier, provinces spent 60 million euros more on culture in 2023.

Drenthe

• Cultural Monitor Drenthe 2017-2020 Edition 4. Publication November 2021
• Cultural Monitor Drenthe 2017-2020 Edition 3. Publication January 2021
• Culture Monitor Emmen 2024 | Tableau Public.
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Flevoland

• Culture Monitor Flevoland 2022-2024Expected publication 2026
• Culture Monitor Flevoland 2019-2021. Publication 2022
• Culture Monitor Flevoland 2017-2018: first half of the policy period 2017-2020. Publication 2019
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Friesland

• Nulmjitting Kultuermonitor Fryslân. Publication 2023
• Fries Sociaal Planningbureau has some figures about cultural participation in 2019. See here the publication from January 2020
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Gelderland

• Culture and Heritage Monitor Gelderland. Publication 2025
• Cultural Monitor Gelderland. Publication 2022
• Culture in Gelderland: a brief benchmark
• Gelderland Heritage Monitor. Publication 2020
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Groningen

• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor
• Basic monitor of the Municipality of Groningen contains some data about culture. See for example Cultural participation. Publication update April 2024

Limburg

• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

North-Brabant

• Value of Culture Brabant 2024. In alignment with the Culture Monitor. Publication 2024
• Value of Culture Brabant 2022. Publication 2022
• Value of Culture Brabant 2020. Publication 2020
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

North-Holland

• Culture Monitor Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA). Publication 2021
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Overijssel

• Cultural Overijssel on the map. Publication 2024
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Utrecht

• Utrecht Monitor for the city, including insights into cultural participation, cultural offering, and satisfaction of cultural facilitiesFigures for 2022.
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

Zeeland

• Culture monitor Zeeland. Publication 2024
• Culture Monitor Zeeland: Baseline measurement. Publication 2022
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor

South-Holland

• Cultural South Holland in Map
• South Holland heritage volunteers in the picture. Publication 2022
• Analysis Regional Culture Monitor