Urk
Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the center-north of the Netherlands with a population of 22,173 as of 2025. It is surrounded by the Noordoostpolder on land and is on the coast of the IJsselmeer. Urk was formerly an island in the Almere, an inland sea that would become part of the Zuiderzee in the 13th century after a series of incursions by the North Sea. The building of a dike from Lemmer in 1939 ended Urk's status as an island and connected it to the Dutch mainland.
The mainstay of the town's formal economy has always been fishing, with Urk having the largest fishing fleet in the Netherlands. The products of the sea coming in through Urk harbor continue to be exported widely, although today Urk's fishing boats must travel greater distances to gather them than was required in most historical periods. Urk's inhabitants are socially tight-knitted and maintain their own unique Dutch dialect. Religious life has traditionally been very important to Urk's inhabitants, with active, conservative congregations of the Dutch Reformed denominations playing key roles in the life of the community.
Geography
Towards the north, the IJsselmeer is enclosed by an arc of boulder clay high areas of land which formed during an ice age glaciations of the Pleistocene epoch: Texel, Wieringen, Urk, de Voorst, and Gaasterland. To the south of that arc a lake formed as a result of meltwater, which became known as Almere. North of the boulder clay highland of Urk, the Vecht river flowed into the Almere, while the river IJssel with tributaries flowed into the south of Urk. As the climate became warmer during the Middle Ages, the sea level rose whilst the surrounding areas have been slowly steadily sinking because of forebulge effect since the end of the Ice Age. During the 13th century the Zuiderzee formed, and the water round Urk suddenly became a tidal sea. Because there was no sea defense, over time large pieces of the island eroded. The southwest side of Urk, which rose perpendicularly out of the sea, was called het Hoge Klif. Around 1700 the municipality of Amsterdam donated sea defenses to Urk. The town contains the highest point in the province of Flevoland.History
The oldest instance of the name "Urk" is a donation certificate of 966 from Holy Roman Emperor Otto I to the Sint Pantaleonsklooster monastery in Cologne. The text reads: cuiisdam insulae medietatem in Almere, que Urch vocatur. Until 1475 the High and Low Lordship of Urk and Emmeloord was in the hands of the Van Kuinre family. From 1475 to 1614, the Zoudenbalch family of Utrecht were Lords of Urk and Emmeloord. From 1614 to 1660, Urk and Emmeloord were ruled by the van der Werve from Antwerp. From 1660 to 1792 Urk and Emmeloord belonged to the municipality of Amsterdam, and ruled from 1660 to 1672 by Andries de Graeff. From 1792 to 1950 Urk belonged to the province of North Holland.Urk ceased to be an island in October 1939 as part of the Zuiderzee Works, and Urk's town expanded into the reclaimed land of the polder. Many Urkers who previously left the town because of overcrowding before the polder reclamation was completed were able to return to Urk. Later, seabed areas surrounding Urk were reclaimed from the sea to become the Noordoostpolder. In 1950, Urk's jurisdiction moved away from North Holland to become part of the province of Overijssel. Since 1986, Urk has belonged to the province of Flevoland.
The Noordoostpolder in its early years had an alternative name "Urker Land," from which Urk's newspaper, Het Urkerland, gets its name.
Economy
The important economic pillar of the village remains fishery. After the IJsselmeer was formed, the Urkers moved their fishing operations to the North Sea. Additionally, Urk is focused on making a connection between the existing economy and new activities such as tourism, social care, maritime industry and services. The local council is keen to particularly promote tourism, retail and fisheries. In the past, many lives were lost in storms on the Zuiderzee and North Sea. There is a memorial to lost fishermen on Urk, popularly known as the Urker vrouw: a statue of a woman looking out to sea, vainly awaiting the return of her husband and sons.Transport
The A6 motorway is a major road near Urk connecting it south to Flevopolder and north to Friesland.Urk has no railway station but the nearest stations are Kampen, Dronten and Lelystad, each approximately away. This makes Urk one of the most isolated places in the Netherlands as far as railway connections are concerned.
Regular passenger ferry services run during summer months across the IJsselmeer to Enkhuizen.
Demographics
Year 2018- Birth Rate: 20.3 per 1000
- Death Rate: 3.24 per 1000
- NGR: +1.90% per year.
In 2021, 44 per cent of Urk's population was under the age of 25. This made Urk the demographically youngest municipality of the Netherlands. Number two in the country was Staphorst, another Calvinist society nearby.
Politics
Local
The municipal council currently contains five political parties:- SGP: 6 seats
- Christian Union: 3 seats
- CDA: 3 seats
- Hart voor Urk: 3 seats
- Gemeentebelangen: 2 seats
- PVV: 1 seat
- Krachtig Urk: 1 seat
A majority coalition of ChristenUnie, SGP and Hart voor Urk are currently in power. The town council is led by mayor Cees van den Bos.
None of these parties can be described as either left-wing or liberal. National parties, such as the VVD, D66, GroenLinks and PvdA, are not represented in Urk's town council and support for these parties in national and regional elections remains minimal. However, due to slowly growing support for the VVD, an Urk affiliate of the conservative/liberal party was founded in early 2011 and entered the 2014 local elections. However, the VVD only drew 2.7% of the vote, insufficient for a seat.
National
Urk is one of the most politically conservative areas in the Netherlands. As part of the so-called Dutch "Bible belt", a vast majority of election votes go to the three Christian parties in the Netherlands, SGP, ChristenUnie and CDA. Urk is also known for its high turnout at each election, which is usually considerably higher than the national average.Voting patterns used to be relatively stable, with approximately 85-90% of the votes spread out evenly over SGP, ChristenUnie and CDA. CDA in Urk usually got more votes in national elections than in local elections, while ChristenUnie's support is sometimes twice locally compared to what it receives from Urk voters in national elections. SGP's support locally is not much different from its support in national elections. In the last elections, the support for CDA and CU dwindled. The short-lived christian democratic party New Social Contract won 6% in 2023.
However, in recent years a few changes in voting patterns occurred, such as a growing support for national protest parties such as the LPF or Geert Wilders' PVV Freedom Party. Also, voting patterns these days tend to show bigger swings, as shown in 2010's and 2012's national elections in which CDA lost 11% and 13% respectively, and in 2011's regional elections, in which ChristenUnie lost 18%. In 2012, orthodox-Christian SGP even registered an absolute majority with 51.2% of the vote..
Support for established left wing parties, such as the Labour Party or the Socialist Party, remains minimal.
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Dialect
One of the oldest and most distinctive dialects of Dutch is the language spoken in Urk. Nearly everyone in the village speaks this dialect and uses it in daily life. The dialect deviates considerably from contemporary standard Dutch and has preserved many old characteristics that disappeared from standard Dutch a long time ago. The Urkish dialect also includes elements that are older than standard Dutch and were never part of the standard language. For example, the old word for "father" in the Urkish dialect is taote. The dialect developed this way because until World War II, Urk was an island and could be reached only by boat. Radio was unknown, and the poor population did not have much money for newspapers and books. Until the modern era, primary education for the children typically lasted only two years; afterwards children had to help maintain the family, and formal schooling ended.Linguistic classifications have assigned "the dialect of Urk" or "Urk" into an own dialect group. Urk is no longer an island and exposure to the standard Dutch through the media is widespread. However, the distinctive Urkish dialect is still alive.
The Urkish dialect has more vowel sounds than standard Dutch and each vowel has short and long forms. The pronunciation of vowels deviates from standard Dutch and is closer to English.
Because living conditions in Urk in historical times were very poor, young girls would frequently leave the island to become domestic servants, mostly in or around Amsterdam. They often served with Jewish families. After a few years, they would return to Urk to form families of their own. As a result of this practice, the Urkish dialect absorbed some loanwords from the Amsterdam dialect and also from Yiddish. For instance, the Yiddish "Shnur" for "sister-in-law" became the Urkish "Snoar" ; the Hebrew "Kallah" for "bride" became the Urkish "Kalletjen", meaning "girlfriend".
When Napoleon occupied the Netherlands, many French words were incorporated into both standard Dutch and Urkish. Just as for standard Dutch, French words often changed form when incorporated into Urkish. The Urkish dialect has always been primarily a spoken language, and there are not many old texts written in the dialect. Only in recent years have people begun to write prose and poetry in the Urkish dialect. There are Urkers who have translated Bible books into Urkish, such as the book of Psalms.