Bevolkingsspreiding (Population Distribution) — CBS / Netherlands

What This Dataset Is

INSPIRE-harmonized population distribution data for the Netherlands, published by CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek / Statistics Netherlands). Contains the number of inhabitants at three geographic levels:

1. 1km squared grid (pd-nl-grid-2012) — population per 1km squared cell on the European ETRS89-LAEA grid, reference year 2012
2. NUTS2 provinces (pd-nl-nuts2-2018) — population per province, reference year 2018
3. LAU municipalities (pd-nl-lau-2018) — population per municipality, reference year 2018

This is the Dutch contribution to the European INSPIRE Statistical Units / Population Distribution theme (Directive 2007/2/EC, Annex III theme 10).

Source: https://www.pdok.nl/introductie/-/article/cbs-bevolkingsspreiding-population-distribution- Provider: CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek / Statistics Netherlands) License: CC0 (public domain)

How to Access

Three GeoParquet files (one per geographic level) and a combined PMTiles file for web visualization are available from Source Cooperative. Native CRS is EPSG:3035 (ETRS89-LAEA) — coordinates are in meters.

Base URL: https://data.source.coop/cholmes/portolan-nl/cbs/bevolkingsspreiding/

Also available via WFS, WMS, and ATOM from PDOK:

• WFS: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/pd/wfs/v1_0
• WMS: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/pd/wms/v1_0
• ATOM: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/pd/atom/v1_0/index.xml

Schema — Field Meanings (Grid Feature Type)

Important Columns

The columns you will most often use:

• gid — cell/region identifier (the grid cell ID encodes its geographic position)
• obsvalue — the population count
• periodofreference — the reference year
• geometry — the cell or region boundary polygon

Coordinate Reference System — EPSG:3035

Unlike most Dutch geodatasets which use EPSG:28992 (RD New / Amersfoort), this dataset uses EPSG:3035 (ETRS89-LAEA Europe). This is the standard European grid CRS used by Eurostat and INSPIRE for cross-border statistical comparisons.

Key implications:

• Coordinates are in metres but on a Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection centred on the European continent
• Grid cell IDs encode northing/easting in EPSG:3035 coordinates
• To combine with other Dutch datasets (e.g. BAG, bestuurlijke gebieden), you must reproject from EPSG:3035 to EPSG:28992 or EPSG:4326

INSPIRE Context

This dataset is part of the INSPIRE Directive implementation:

• Theme: Annex III, theme 10 — Population Distribution / Demography
• Spatial scope: Statistical Units (grid, NUTS, LAU)
• The 1km squared grid follows the EEA reference grid (ETRS89-LAEA), enabling seamless combination with population grids from other EU member states
• NUTS2 regions correspond to Dutch provinces
• LAU regions correspond to Dutch municipalities (gemeenten)

Useful Query Patterns

Fetch grid population data via WFS (using ogr2ogr)

Fetch municipality-level population

Load ATOM download into DuckDB

If you download the GML files from the ATOM service:

Most populated grid cells

Population by province (NUTS2)

Visualization Styles

One Mapbox GL v8 style is available for interactive map visualization via the PMTiles file.

Style files are Mapbox GL v8 JSON with relative PMTiles source paths. They can be used with MapLibre GL JS, OpenLayers (via ol-mapbox-style), or any Mapbox GL v8-compatible renderer.

• styles/default.json — Population density heatmap. Red sequential ramp on obsvalue (population count) across the grid layer. White (low) to dark red (high density). Shows the Randstad concentration and rural/urban contrasts across the Netherlands.

Style files are at: https://data.source.coop/cholmes/portolan-nl/cbs/bevolkingsspreiding/styles/

Caveats

• EPSG:3035, not EPSG:28992: This is one of the few Dutch datasets that uses the European LAEA projection instead of the Dutch national RD New system. Make sure to handle the CRS correctly when combining with other Dutch data.
• Different reference years: Grid data is from 2012, while NUTS2 and LAU data is from 2018. Do not directly compare grid totals with regional totals without accounting for population growth.
• INSPIRE field naming: Fields use INSPIRE-compliant names (obsvalue, obsstatus, periodofreference) rather than intuitive Dutch or English names.
• Small dataset: The grid parquet (3.8 MB) and regional files (<1 MB each) are small enough to load entirely into memory for analysis.
• Grid cell IDs encode position: The gid field contains the EPSG:3035 coordinates of the grid cell origin, which can be parsed to reconstruct the cell location without needing the geometry.
• Population counts only: This dataset contains only total population counts, not demographic breakdowns (age, gender, etc.). For detailed demographic data, use other CBS datasets like Wijken en Buurten.

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Hand-maintained agent guide (ported from this collection's llms.txt in August 2026). Update it alongside collection.json.