From the moment of its establishment in 1976, Almere has been one of the fastest growing cities in Europe. In merely 35 years it has attracted over 190,000 residents and 14,500 businesses. Almere is one of the four main cities in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and the seventh largest city in the Netherlands.

The very birth of Almere demonstrates its innovative character as a city. At the outset of the 20th century, Almere’s present territory was just a patch of water in the Zuiderzee. Starting in 1932, the majority of the Zuiderzee was closed off from the North Sea and the salt-water inlet changed into a fresh-water lake - the IJsselmeer. In 1975 Almere’s first inhabitants - real pioneers - took up residence on the newly reclaimed land. Since then, Almere has been a city where innovations can thrive, which is essentially what the new town character of Almere is all about.

Ambition: The expansion of the city - the road to urban adulthood - continues apace. Its ambition is to double in size over the next twenty years, making Almere the fifth (or possibly even the fourth) largest city in the Netherlands. This will entail building 60,000 new houses and creating 100,000 new jobs and related facilities. The intended growth of the city will take place in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable fashion. One of the main objectives of the city’s spatial planning agenda is to provide an integrated solution for environmental consideration, while at the same time attaining optimal levels of quality of life, comfort and social, economical and cultural values.

Abundance of space: Almere is centrally located in the Randstad conurbation, the urban region containing the four major cities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Rotterdam) in the west of the Netherlands. Being a part of the metropolitan area of Amsterdam, Almere is in the vicinity of two international airports, the port of Amsterdam and a plethora of railway and motorway connections. This makes Almere an indispensably strategic location for business development and unlimited business opportunities. Unlike most major cities in the Netherlands, Almere still has ample space available to accommodate entrepreneurs of all industries, with businesses of all sizes. The city’s residents equally benefit from the abundance of space available. They can rent, buy or even build their own homes in areas that best meet their needs.

One of the other primary contributions to Almere’s unique and colorful character is its cultural diversity. Altogether, Almere is home to residents of 181 different ethnicities and 153 different nationalities. The largest ethnic population after the Dutch is the Surinamese (11%). Other large ethnic groups are the Moroccans (3.6%), Turks (1.7%), Germans (1.6%) and Indonesians (1.2%).

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阿尔梅勒从1976年成立以来一直是欧洲范围内成长最快的城市之一。在仅仅35年的时间里，这个城市已经吸引了超过19万的新居民和1万4千5百个企业。阿尔梅勒是阿姆斯特丹大都市区域的四大城市之一，也是荷兰的第七大城市。

阿尔梅勒的诞生本身展现出该城市的创新精神。自20世纪初始，阿尔梅勒现在所在的地理位置只是须德海（zuiderzee)的一潭水域。从1932年起，须德海的大部分区域被与北海隔断，海水的入口变成淡水湖-艾瑟尔湖（IJsselmeer)。1975年，阿尔梅勒的第一批居民-真正的先锋-开始入住这片刚刚围海造地而得的新土地。自此以后，阿尔梅勒一直是一个创新理念蓬勃发展的城市，这正是这座新城的核心特点。

发展目标: 城市扩张，即该新城发展到成熟阶段的途径，一直在被快速推进着。这座新城的发展目标是在未来的二十年内扩容两倍，使其成为荷兰第五大（甚至第四大）城市。这意味着未来需要建设6万单元新住宅，创造10万个新就业岗位和提供相关配套设施。理想的城市增长将采取一种生态友好、社会和经济可持续发展的模式。城市空间规划的主要目标之一是制定一个整合的方案，既包含对环境保护的考虑，同时取得最佳水平的生活质量和舒适度，以及社会、经济和文化价值的实现。

土地资源充足: 阿尔梅勒位于荷兰兰斯塔德（Randstad)城市群中，该城市群包含荷兰西部的四个主要城市（阿姆斯特丹、乌特勒支、海牙和鹿特丹）。作为阿姆斯特丹大都市区的组成部分，阿尔梅勒在两个国际机场和阿姆斯特丹港口辐射范围内，并与诸多火车线路和公路相连。这使得阿尔梅勒处于经济活动扩张不可取代的战略位置，这里拥有无限的商机。与大多数荷兰主要城市不同，阿尔梅勒仍然具有大量充足的土地资源可供各种类型和规模的工业企业入驻。城市的居民同样从空间充足这个特点中获益。他们可以在最符合个人要求的地点租赁、购买甚至自建住房。

阿尔梅勒独特和富有色彩的城市个性的另一个重要影响因素是它的文化多样性。总体算来，阿尔梅勒是来自181个不同民族和153种不同国籍的人士的共同家园。排在荷兰本土居民之后最大的民族是苏里南人（11%）。其它人数较多的少数民族包括摩洛哥人（3.6%），土耳其人（1.7%），德国人（1.6%）和印尼人（1.2%）。