The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands which constitutionally is Amsterdam.
With a population just over 500,000 inhabitants (as of 1 November 2012) and more than one million inhabitants including the suburbs, it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The combined urban area of The Hague and Rotterdam, with a population of approximately 2.9 million, is the 206th largest urban area in the world and the most populous in the country.
Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, together with Queen Maxima.
Most foreign embassies in the Netherlands and 150 international organisations are located in the city, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which makes The Hague one of the major cities hosting the United Nations, along with New York, Geneva, Bonn, Vienna, Tokyo and Nairobi.
The Hague is the Netherlands' largest city on the North Sea, in the southwest of the South Holland province, and forms the centre of a conurbation called Haaglanden. Westland and Wateringen lie to the south, Delft and the Rotterdam conurbation to the southeast, Nootdorp, Pijnacker, Rijswijk and Voorburg to the east, Zoetermeer and Voorschoten to the northeast and Wassenaar and Leidschendam-Voorburg and the Leiden conurbation to the north.
The conurbations around The Hague and Rotterdam are close enough to be a single conurbation in some contexts. For example, they share the Rotterdam The Hague Airport and a light rail system called RandstadRail.