Rotterdam is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland.

Rotterdam, major European port and second largest city of the Netherlands. The city lies along both banks of the New Meuse River, which is a northern distributary of the Rhine River.

The name Rotterdam was first mentioned in 1283, when a small tract of reclaimed land was created by draining the mouth of the Rotte River . Rotterdam developed as a fishing village and was chartered in 1328. In 1340 the town received permission to dig a canal to the Schie , and it became the major port of the province. The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 13th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country.

A major logistic and economic centre, Rotterdam is Europe's largest seaport. In 2020, it had a population of 651,446 and is home to over 180 nationalities. Rotterdam is known for its university, riverside setting, lively cultural life, maritime heritage and modern architecture. The near-complete destruction of the city centre in the World War II Rotterdam Blitz has resulted in a varied architectural landscape, including sky-scrapers designed by architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Piet Blom and Ben van Berkel.The Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, including the highly industrialized Ruhr.
 

• Rotterdam is the most multicultural city in the Netherlands, hosting inhabitants of over 160 different nationalities
• In 2009 prestigious travel guide Lonely Planet named the bar De Witte Aap at the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam the best bar in the world
• Rotterdam is home to 68 football clubs. Two of those football clubs: Sparta and Feyenoord play in the Eredivisie
• Rotterdam is home to 73 bridges
• The Erasmusbridge is actually lovingly called ‘De Zwaan’ in Dutch, or the swan, thanks to its elegant shape

The Government of Rotterdam is the government of the municipality and city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Most of the inhabitants live in the city of Rotterdam, but the municipality also covers a number of small villages, and other parts of the local government, such as Rozenburg, cover an even larger area.

The coalition mayor and aldermen for the period 2006-2010 was formed by a coalition of the parties PvdA , CDA , VVD and GroenLinks . The college was sworn in on May 18, 2006.

The college since its inauguration in 2006 has had a number of cycles. VVD alderman Roelf de Boer retreated from his position in 2007. The two VVD aldermen Jeannette Baljeu and Mark Harbers were replaced by CDA and PvdA aldermen. This left the CDA with three council seats and three aldermen, a remarkable situation. In July 2009 CDA alderman Leonard Geluk joined the coalition but he stepped down prematurely, because of his new position as chairman of ROC Netherlands.

The city board of mayor and aldermen was formed by four parties: PvdA , VVD , D66 , and CDA .

Aldermen were: Jeannette Baljeu, Hugo de Jonge, Hamit Karakus, Jantine Kriens, Antoinette Laan and Korrie Louwes .

The city board of mayor and aldermen is formed by three parties: Leefbaar Rotterdam , D66 , and CDA .

The current mayor is Ahmed Aboutaleb .Until 19 March 2014, Rotterdam's fourteen boroughs had the formal status of sub municipalities under the Dutch Municipalities Act.

The sub municipalities were responsible for many activities that previously had been run by the central city. The idea was to bring the government closer to the people. All sub municipalities had their own dell gemeenteraad , directly elected by the borough's inhabitants. The district councils enjoyed far-reaching autonomous decision making powers in many policy areas. Only affairs pertaining to the whole city such as major infrastructural projects remained within the jurisdiction of the central municipal council.

In 2014, the submunicipalities were abolished by law, but Rotterdam maintained its boroughs. The district councils were replaced with smaller, but still directly elected gebiedscommissie .

Rotterdam’s economy is still almost completely based on shipping. The port lies at the heart of the densely populated and industrialized triangle of London, Paris, and the German Ruhr district and at the mouths of two important rivers , yet it is also open to the North Sea, the world’s most heavily navigated sea. The amount of sea-transported goods that pass through Rotterdam’s harbour and that of its outport, Europoort, is the largest in the world in terms of capacity, with much of its cargoes consisting of crude oil or petroleum products. Rotterdam is also one of the largest grain and general-cargo harbours on the continent. It is a major transshipment port for inland Europe, with tens of thousands of Rhine River barges using its facilities.Since the late 1940s Rotterdam’s oil-processing, or petrochemical, industry has grown in importance. The city has several large oil refineries. Pipelines from Rotterdam transport seaborne crude oil, refinery products, ethylene and natural gas, and naphtha to Amsterdam, the province of Limburg, the southern island district of Zeeland, the Belgian city of Antwerp, and to Germany. From the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC, the world's first multinational, established in 1602, to the merchant shipping leader Royal Nedlloyd established in 1970, with its corporate headquarters located in the landmark building the 'Willemswerf' in 1988.

In 1997, Nedlloyd merged with the British shipping industry leader P&O forming the third largest merchant shipping company in the world. The Anglo-Dutch P&O Nedlloyd was bought by the Danish giant corporation 'AP Moller Maersk' in 2005 and its Dutch operations are still headquartered in the 'Willemswerf'.

Nowadays, well-known companies with headquarters in Rotterdam are consumers goods company Unilever, asset management firm Robeco, energy company Eneco, dredging company Van Oord, oil company Shell Downstream, terminal operator Vopak, commodity trading company Vitol and architecture firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture. It is also home to the regional headquarters of chemical company LyondellBasell, commodities trading company Glencore, pharmaceutical company Pfizer, logistics companies Stolt-Nielsen, electrical equipment company ABB Group and consumer goods company Procter & Gamble. Furthermore, Rotterdam has the Dutch headquarters of Allianz, Maersk, Petrobras, Samskip, Louis Dreyfus Group, Aon and MP Objects.

The City of Rotterdam makes use of the services of semi-government companies Roteb and students of Rotterdam Business school RBS and the Port of Rotterdam Authority . The city's unemployment rate is 12%, almost twice the national average.

Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, with the rivers Maas and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland and into France. In 2004 Shanghai took over as the world's busiest port. In 2006, Rotterdam was the world's seventh largest container port in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units handled.

The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials between the European continent and overseas.

Rotterdam has become world famous because of its modern and groundbreaking architecture. Throughout the years the city has been nicknamed Manhattan at the Meuse and The architectural capital of the Netherlands both for its skyline and because it is home to internationally leading architectural firms involved in the design of famous buildings and bridges in other big cities. Examples include OMA , Neutelings & Riedijk and Erick van Egeraat. It has the reputation in being a platform for architectural development and education through the NAi , which is open to the public and has a variety of exhibitions on architecture and urban planning issues and prior the Berlage Institute, a postgraduate laboratory of architecture. The city has 38 skyscrapers and 352 high-rises and has many skyscrapers planned or under construction. The top 5 of highest buildings in the Netherlands consists entirely of buildings in Rotterdam. Rotterdam offers connections by international, national, regional and local public transport systems, as well as by the Dutch motorway network. There are several motorways to/from Rotterdam.Much smaller than the international hub Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport is the third largest airport in the country, behind Schiphol Airport and Eindhoven Airport. Located north of the city, it has shown a very strong growth over the past five years, mostly caused by the growth of the low-cost carrier market. For business travelers, Rotterdam The Hague Airport offers advantages in terms of rapid handling of passengers and baggage. Environmental regulations make further growth uncertain. In 1968, Rotterdam was the first Dutch city to open a metro system. Currently the metro system consists of three main lines, each of which has its own variants. The system is operated by 5 lines; 3 lines on the east–west line, and two on the north–south line. Line E connects Rotterdam with The Hague as of December 2011. The Rotterdam tramway network offers 9 regular tram lines and 4 special tram lines with a total length of 93.4 km .

Rotterdam offers 55 city bus lines with a total length of 432.7 km . RET runs buses in the city of Rotterdam and surrounding places like Spijkenisse, Barendrecht, Ridderkerk, Rhoon, Poortugaal, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Delft and Capelle aan den IJssel. . Arriva Netherlands, Connexxion, Qbuzz and Veolia run buses from other cities to Rotterdam.