The Hague (; or 's-Gravenhage ) is the seat of government in the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 515,880 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2015) and more than one million inhabitants including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union 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.