Netherlands The Dutch are the tallest people in the world and they still grow. If you walk through cities in the west of the Netherlands, you tend to think the Dutch are a cosmopolitan people. In the rural areas, however you can easily distinguish local differences. In the North, you'll still mostly see the silent blue-eyed, blond types, whereas in the South people tend to be shorter darker and more talkative. At primary school children used to learn: people above the great rivers that split the country in two are mostly Protestant; the southern part is dominantly Catholic. But these differences have greatly faded away. To the trained ear there are some differences in pronunciation between the different regions and the Frisians even have a language of their own. The Dutch do appreciate foreign attempts to speak their language, but proud as they are on their alleged linguistic skills, they usually switch to some sort of English, French or German quite fast. Population: 16,318,199 (July 2004 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 18.3% (male 1,527,316; female 1,457,192) 15-64 years: 67.8% (male 5,598,706; female 5,459,936) 65 years and over: 13.9% (male 953,370; female 1,321,679) (2004 est.) Population growth rate: 0.57% (2004 est.) Birth rate: 11.41 births/1,000 population (2004 est.) Death rate: 8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.) Net migration rate: 2.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.) Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2004 est.) Infant mortality rate: total: 5.11 deaths/1,000 live births female: 4.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.) male: 5.68 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy at birth: total population: 78.68 years male: 76.15 years female: 81.34 years (2004 est.) Total fertility rate: 1.66 children born/woman (2004 est.) Nationality: noun: Dutchman(men) Dutchwoman(women) adjective: Dutch Ethnic groups: Dutch 83%, other 17% (of which 9% are non-Western origin mainly Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese and Indonesians) (1999 est.) Religions: Roman Catholic 31%, Protestant 21%, Muslim 4.4%, other 3.6%, unaffiliated 40% (1998) Languages: Dutch Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99% (2000 est.) male: NA% female: NA%
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