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Belgium is a country in the centre of northern Europe.

Belgium borders on to the North Sea.

The land is flat along the coast, with hills in the centre of the country. There are low mountains in the south east among the trees of the Ardennes Forest.

Belgium has two different communities, the Flemish speaking people of Flanders and the French speaking people of Wallonia.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Belgium, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 50 50N
Longitude - 4 00E.

The capital of Belgium is Brussels.

Belgium is a constitutional parliamentary democracy with a monarch as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government. The present King (2017) is Philippe who came to the throne in 2013 after his father, Albert II, abdicated. He is 56 years old. His daughter, Elisabeth, aged 15, is the heir to the throne.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 must vote.

The currency in Belgium is the euro. Belgium was a founder member of what is now the European Union.

Dutch and French are the main offical languages. German is also an official language but only spoken by about 1% of the people.

Check the weather in Brussels now.

This is the time in Brussels now

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The Belgian flag is 3 equal vertical stripes of black, yellow and red. The colours are those of the coat of arms of the Brabant region which has a yellow lion with red claws and tongue on a black field.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Belgian National Anthem called The Song of Brabant, which is a region in the country. It was adopted in 1830 when Belgian gained its independence from the Netherlands. Only the fourth verse of the original words is used as the anthem. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

O Belgium, dear mother,
To you our hearts, to you our arms,
To you our blood, o fatherland!
We all vow: you will live!
You will always live in grandeur and beauty.
And the immortal motto 
Of your invincible unity will be:
For King, Right and Liberty!
Of your invincible unity will be:
For King, Right and Liberty!
For King, Right and Liberty!
For King, Right and Liberty!

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Belgium is 30,278 sq kms which is the 32nd largest in Europe.

Belgium has lakes, rivers and canals which total 250 sq kms.

Belgium has boundaries with 4 countries

• France 556 kms
• Netherlands 478 kms
• Germany 133 kms
• Luxembourg 130 kms

Belgium has a coastline of 66 kms which is the 26th longest in Europe.

The highest point in Belgium is Botrange at 694 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Belgium is 11.40 million people, making it the 10th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 5.80 million are females and 5.60 million are males.

A person from Belgium is called Belgian.

To be a citizen of Belgium, one of your parents must be a citizen of Belgium. It is not sufficient to be born in Belgium. You have to live in Belgium for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Belgium, by population are:-

• Brussels 1,019,022 people
• Antwerp (in Flanders) 459,805
• Ghent (in Flanders) 231,493
• Charleroi (in Wallonia) 200,132
• Liege (in Wallonia) 182,597

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



97.9% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Belgium is 11.4 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Belgium is 9.7 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 3.0 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 3.8 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 42.7 and for males is 40.2. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 28.2.

The elderly dependency ratio is 28.0. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 3.6. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Belgium spends 10.6% of its total income on health care.

There are 3.78 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 6.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

22.1% of the population are estimated as obese.

100% of the population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

99.5% of the urban population and 99.4% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Belgium releases 141.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 9th highest in Europe.

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Belgium spends 6.4% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Belgium. Primary education is for six years until age 12 and secondary education must continue till 18. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the first week of September and finishes at the end of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas and Easter, and a one week break in the middle of each of the first two terms.

We have no figures for the number of people who are able to read and write by the age of 15.

20.1% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 18.2% are unemployed while with males 21.8% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Belgium is 5.25 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

8.5% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 26 paved airports in Belgium, which is the 18th highest number in Europe.


There are 3,592 kilometres of railways in Belgium, which is the 20th longest in Europe.


There are 120,514 kilometres of roads in Belgium, which means Belgium is in 12th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 8 major national newspapers in Belgium.

There are 12.9 million mobile phone users which is greater than the total population. This means some people will have more than one mobile.

40% of the people have a fixed landline.



9.6 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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