Belgium: Overview
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Belgium: Overview

map of Belgium Clickable Map: Belgium with major cities; thick black lines denote the language border separating the 3 regions: Brussels in the center, Flanders in the Northern half, Wallonia in the Southern half; thin lines delimit provinces

Belgium is a small, highly developed and densely populated country (10 million of inhabitants) at the cross-roads of Western Europe. Belgium is one of the founding members of the European Community, and its capital, Brussels, is also the capital of the European Union. It is a federal state, with 3 relatively autonomous regions: Flanders in the north, where the language is Dutch ("Flemish"), Wallonia in the south, where the language is French, and the centrally located Brussels, which is officially bilingual. Belgium's rich history has left impressive churches, town halls, castles and works of art, dating back to the early Middle Ages, spread around the cities and country-side.

Belgium has possibly the highest "quality of life" in the world, as testified by its excellent food, housing, health care, education and infrastructure, its world records for high productivity and low poverty, and the appreciation of foreigners residing in Belgium. For a personal view on what distinguishes Belgium and the Belgian character (good living, pragmatism, food and drink, open-mindedness, compromise, privacy ...), check my "Essay on Belgian Culture".

General Country Information

Economy and Statistics

Belgium in Europe

Visiting Belgium

Coming to live in Belgium

Photo: part of the Brussels Grand' Place

Cities and Regions

(see also Belgian cities and regions in City.Net and Belgian Regional Information)

News and Information Services

  • Infobel: find anyone anywhere in Belgium with name, address and phone number!
  • The Golden Pages: find all businesses (shops, restaurants, liberal professions, multinationals, etc.) in Belgium that supply a particular product or service
  • MSR news : summaries of news from Belgium, in Dutch
  • Radio Belche: another service for Belgian news summaries, in French
  • Belgian Newspapers on the web
  • soc.culture.belgium: Newsgroup (check its charter) where you can post specific questions or have discussions on all matters Belgian (ask them, don't ask me!)

Network Services

Other Belgium Overview Pages

Belgian Roots

Typically Belgian Things


Copyright© 2000 Principia Cybernetica - Referencing this page

Author
F. Heylighen,

Date
Apr 10, 2000 (modified)
Oct 27, 1993 (created)

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