A province of the Netherlands, in the North-Eastern corner of the country. The province has about 575.000 inhabitants. (The Netherlands has a total of 16 million inhabitants). Locals do divide their province in 'Stad' (The City) and 'Ommelanden' (the Surrounding Lands). Groningen is one of the poorest regions of the Netherlands. This despite the discovery in 1959 of one of the largest and most profitable fields of natural gas of Europe.

Groningen is also the name of its capital.