General Information

Capital:

Brussels 948,122 (1996 est.)

Area:

30,528 sq km (11,787 sq mi)

Form of government

Federal constitutional monarchy with a Parliament composed of two legislative chambers

GDP per capita

Purchasing power parity-$23,900 (1999 est.)

Population

10,182,034 (July 1999 est.)

Ethnic composition

Belgian - 91.0%

Italian - 2.4%

Moroccan - 1.4%

French - 0.9%

Turkish - 0.8%

Dutch - 0.6%

Other - 2.9%

Updated (November 2003)

In 2002, 57.9 percent of the population lived in the Dutch-speaking region, 31.9 percent in the French-speaking region and 9.5 percent in the Brussels bilingual region. Only 71,287 people (0.7 percent) lived in the German-speaking region.

In 2002, Belgium had 10,309,725 inhabitants, of which 846,734 (8.4 percent) were foreigners. Most of them lived in the Walloon region (311,471). More than 260,000 foreigners were resident in the Brussels Capital Region. The Flemish region had a relatively low number of foreigners: 275,223.

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

Official Language(s)

Dutch (Flemish), French (Walloon), German

Minority Language(s)

Luxembourgish, Oîl

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