Eindhoven (, ;; ) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the largest city in the southern province of North Brabant, and is located in the Dutch part of the Campine natural region. With a population of 249,054 (1 January 2025) on a territory of 88.92 km2,Statistieken gemeente Eindhoven, AlleCijfers.nl it is the fifth-largest city of the Netherlands and the largest outside the Randstad conurbation.
Eindhoven was originally located at the confluence of the Dommel and the Gender.The Gender was dammed short of the city centre in the 1950s, but the Dommel still runs through the city. A municipality since the 13th century, Eindhoven witnessed rapid growth starting in the 1900s by textile and tobacco industries. Two well-known companies, DAF Trucks and Philips, were founded in the city; Philips would go on to become a major multinational conglomerate while based in Eindhoven. Apart from Philips, Eindhoven also contains the globally famous Design Academy Eindhoven.
Neighbouring cities and towns include Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Helmond, Heeze-Leende, Waalre, Veldhoven, Eersel, Oirschot and Best. The agglomeration has a population of . The metropolitan area consists of inhabitants. The city region has a population of 753,426. The Brabantse Stedenrij combined metropolitan area has about two million inhabitants.
Etymology The name may derive from the contraction of the regional words eind (meaning "last" or "end") and hove (or hoeve, a section of some 14 hectares of land). Toponymically, eind occurs commonly as a prefix and postfix in local place- and street names. A "hove" comprised a parcel of land which a local lord might lease to private persons (such as farmers). Given that a string of such parcels existed around Woensel, the name Eindhoven may have originated with the meaning literally "last hoves on the land of Woensel" in Dutch language.
Another explanation is that the Gender, one of the streams that flowed near Eindhoven, was once known as "Einde" or "Ende" and the name therefore could have come from "hove," with a similar meaning as above, on the stream "Einde." By this reasoning the city's name would mean something like "farmstead on the river Einde."
History
13th–15th centuries The written history of Eindhoven started in 1232, when Duke Hendrik I of Brabant granted city rights to Eindhoven, then a small town right on the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. At the time of granting of its charter, Eindhoven had approximately 170 houses enclosed by a rampart. Just outside the city walls stood a small castle. The city was also granted the right to organize a weekly market and the farmers in nearby villages were obliged to come to Eindhoven to sell their produce. Another factor in its establishment was its location on the trade route from Holland to Liège.
Around 1388, the city's fortifications were strengthened further. And between 1413 and 1420, a new castle was built within the city walls. In 1486, Eindhoven was plundered and burned by troops from Guelders.
16th–18th centuries
The reconstruction of Eindhoven was finished in 1502, with a stronger rampart and a new castle. However, in 1543 it fell again, its defence works having been neglected due to poverty.
A big fire in 1554 destroyed 75% of the houses but by 1560 these had been rebuilt with the help of William I of Orange. During the Dutch Revolt, Eindhoven changed hands between the Dutch and the Spanish several times during which it was burned down by renegade Spanish soldiers, until finally in 1583 it was captured once more by Spanish troops and its city walls were demolished.
Eindhoven did not become part of the Netherlands until 1629. During the French occupation, Eindhoven suffered again with many of its houses destroyed by the invading forces. Eindhoven remained a minor city after that until the start of the Industrial Revolution.
19th century The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century provided a major growth impulse. Canals, roads and railroads were constructed. Eindhoven was connected to the major Zuid-Willemsvaart canal through the Eindhovens Kanaal branch in 1843 and was connected by rail to Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Venlo and Belgium between 1866 and 1870. Industrial activities initially centred around tobacco and textiles and boomed with the rise of lighting and electronics giant Philips, which was founded as a light bulb manufacturing company in Eindhoven in 1891.
Industrialisation brought population growth to Eindhoven. On the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, Eindhoven had 2,310 inhabitants.
20th century By 1920, the population was 47,946; by 1925 it was 63,870 and in 1935 that had ballooned to 103,030. The explosive growth of industry in the region and the subsequent housing needs of workers called for radical changes in administration, as the City of Eindhoven was still confined to its medieval moat city limits. In 1920, the five neighbouring municipalities of Woensel (to the north), Tongelre (northeast and east), Stratum (southeast), Gestel en Blaarthem (southwest) and Strijp (west), which already bore the brunt of the housing needs and related problems, were incorporated into the new Groot-Eindhoven ("Greater Eindhoven") municipality. The prefix "Groot-" was later dropped.
After the incorporation of 1920, the five former municipalities became districts of the Municipality of Eindhoven, with Eindhoven-Centrum (the City proper) forming the sixth. Since then, an additional seventh district has been formed by dividing the largest district, that of Woensel, into Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord.
The early 20th century saw additions in technical industry with the advent of car and truck manufacturing company Van Doorne's Aanhangwagenfabriek (Trailer factory) (DAF) which was later renamed to Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek and the subsequent shift towards electronics and engineering, with the traditional tobacco and textile industries waning and finally disappearing in the 1970s.
A first air raid in World War II was flown by the RAF on 6 December 1942 targeting the Philips factory downtown, in which 148 civilians died, even though the attack was carried out on a Sunday. Large-scale air raids, including the bombing by the Luftwaffe on 19 September 1944 during Operation Market Garden, destroyed large parts of the city and killed 227 civilians while leaving 800 wounded. The reconstruction that followed left very little historical remains and the postwar reconstruction period saw drastic renovation plans in highrise style, some of which were implemented. At the time, there was little regard for historical heritage. During the 1960s, a new city hall was built and its Neo-gothic predecessor (1867) demolished to make way for a planned arterial road that never materialised.
The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s saw large-scale housing developments in the districts of Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord, making Eindhoven the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands.
21st century At the start of the 21st century, a whole new housing development called Meerhoven was constructed at the site of the old airport of Welschap, west of Eindhoven. The airport itself, now called Eindhoven Airport, had moved earlier to a new location, paving the way for much-needed new houses. Meerhoven is part of the Strijp district and is partially built on lands annexed from the municipality of Veldhoven. Eindhoven has been named the world's most relaxing city to live in 2026. It ranks first in top ten most relaxing cities in view of short commute times, least pollution, safety and healthcare.
Geography
The villages and city that make up modern Eindhoven were originally built on sandy elevations between the Dommel, Gender and Tongelreep rivers. Beginning in the 19th century, the basins of the rivers themselves have also been used as housing land, resulting in occasional flooding in the city centre. Partly to reduce flooding, the bed of the Gender stream, which flowed directly through the city centre, was dammed off and filled up after the War, and the course of the Dommel was regulated. New ecological and socio-historical insights have led to parts of the Dommel's course being restored to their original states, and plans to have the Gender flow through the centre once again.
The large-scale housing developments of the 20th century saw residential areas being built on former agricultural lands and woods, former heaths that had been turned into cultivable lands in the 19th century.
The city is currently divided into seven districts: 1. Centrum 2. Woensel-Noord 3. Woensel-Zuid 4. Tongelre 5. Stratum 6. Gestel 7. Strijp
Climate Eindhoven has an oceanic climate with slightly warmer summers and cooler winters than the coastal parts of the Netherlands. Its all-time record is set on 25 July 2019 and set on 13 January 1968, while winter lows have dipped below during extreme cold snaps. Although frosts are frequent in winter, there is no lasting snow cover in a normal winter due to the mild daytime temperatures.
Demographics
Population , the population of Eindhoven consisted of 372,720 people (according to AlleCijfers.nl). Of these, 28% or some 104,804 people were of (partial) foreign descent in 2023.Autochtoon of migratieachtergrond, AlleCijfers.nl
People are classified as being of foreign descent when they were born outside of the Netherlands, or when at least one of their parents was born outside of the Netherlands.
+Population in 2025 by country of birth of parent (mother, or—if mother is Dutch—father) (2025) Country/territory Population Netherlands 134,959 Turkey 13,581 India 9,214 Morocco 6,975 Indonesia 5,631 Soviet Union 5,239 Poland 4,956 Germany 4,682 China 4,167 Suriname 3,776 Syria 3,293 Dutch Caribbean 3,275 Belgium 2,760 Spain 2,309 Yugoslavia 2,132
The municipal agglomeration of Eindhoven (an administrative construct which includes only some of the surrounding towns and villages) has 327,245 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010.
The spoken language is a combination of Kempenlands (a Dutch dialect spoken in a large area east and south east of the city, including Arendonk and Lommel in Belgium) and North Meierijs (between the south of Den Bosch and into Eindhoven). Both dialects belong to the East Brabantian dialect group), which is very similar to colloquial Dutch).Jos & Cor Swanenberg: Taal in stad en land: Oost-Brabants,
+ Urban development Year Population 1996 197,374 2000 201,728 2005 208,455 2010 213,809 2015 223,209 2020 234,394 2021 235,691 2022 238,326 2023 243,730 2024 246,443
Inhabitants by origin 2020Numbers%Dutch natives146,44362.48%Western migration background36,05715.38%Non-Western migration background51,89422.14%Turkey11,2954.82%Morocco6,4512.75%Indonesia5,934Suriname3,748Netherlands Antilles and Aruba2,925Total234 394100%
Districts Of all Eindhoven districts, the historical centre is by far the smallest in size and population, numbering only 5,419 in 2006. Woensel-Noord is the largest, having been the city's main area of expansion for several decades.
Population figures for all districts, as of 1 January 2008, ranked by size:http://eindhoven.buurtmonitor.nl/ eindhoven.buurtmonitor.nl
Woensel-Noord (65,429) Woensel-Zuid (35,789) Stratum (31,778) Gestel (26,590) Strijp (25,402) Tongelre (19,680) Centrum (5,757)
Religion Eindhoven is located in the southeast of the province of North Brabant. This area is historically Catholic and the population of Eindhoven was similarly mostly Catholic for a very long time until the late 1970s. However, the internationalizing influence of the university, Philips and other companies have created a more mixed population over the last few decades.
The spiritual needs of the Eindhoven population are tended to by a steadily shrinking number of churches, two mosques and one synagogue.
Crime