Belgium Country Overview
Where is Belgium located? Belgium is a kingdom and is located in western Europe. Belgium forms the Benelux countries with the Netherlands and Luxembourg. On the time zone map, the countries along the degrees of longitude are assigned to different world time zones. The classification provides information about how big the time difference between the respective country and the world time (also called UTC) is. The time zone in which Belgium is located is called “Central European Time” or “Central European Time” and is 1 hour ahead of world time. In summer, the time is changed to “Central European Summer Time”. Then the time difference to the world clock is 2 hours.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Belgium is 11,720,716, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 11,720,716 |
| Population growth rate | 0.63% |
| Birth rate | 11.30 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 79.78 years |
| Men life expectancy | 76.62 years |
| Women life expectancy | 83.08 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 17.20% |
| 15-64 years | 64.03% |
| 65 years and above | 18.78% |
| Median age | 41.40 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.96 |
| Population density | 383.93 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 97.20% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 59% Flemings, 40% Walloons, 1% German-speaking community – proportion of foreigners in 2015: 11.6% | |
| Religions | |
| Catholics (Roman Catholic) 75%; Liberals 12%; Other 13% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.919 |
| HDI ranking | 17th out of 194 |
People in Belgium
Around eleven million people live in Belgium, most of them in the north of the country. The south of the country is less densely populated. About 6.2 million people live in the northern Flemish region. 3.5 million live in the southern Walloon region and just over a million in the capital Brussels. The majority of the Walloons live in Brussels.
Of the residents with another nationality, the Italians form the largest group, followed by the French and Dutch, then Moroccans and other nations.
Languages in Belgium
The Flemings speak Dutch and the Walloons speak French. Flanders is the region that borders the North Sea in Belgium. A small minority in the east of the country speaks the German language. There have often been arguments between Flemings and Walloons in the past. This is still the case sometimes today. The reason lies in the history of the country. Belgium as a state has not existed that long, namely since 1830.
When Belgium was founded as an independent state in 1830, most people still spoke French. But since 1963, all languages of Belgium – Dutch, French and German – have been on an equal footing. By the way, 60 out of 100 Belgians speak Dutch, which is the largest part.
Religions in Belgium
Most Belgians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, around 75 out of 100 Belgians. Only one percent can be assigned to the Protestant Church and eight out of 100 people profess Islam.
Out of 100 people, however, around 16 are not baptized at all or are religious, i.e. non-denominational. Catholicism has a long tradition in Belgium and led to a dispute with the Protestant north in the 19th century. So it came to the separation from each other.