Zoetermeer

Zoetermeer is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 37.05 km2 of which 2.60 km2 is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328, making it the third largest population centre in the province of South Holland, after Rotterdam and The Hague. While now a city in its own right, Zoetermeer started out as a suburb of The Hague and is still a part of the Greater The Hague urban area.

The name Zoetermeer refers to the former lake north of the town. Because the name literally translates as "sweet lake" local residents have dubbed Zoetermeer "Sweet Lake City".