ABSTRACT
A small federalized country with a constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe, Belgium has a land area of 30,500 square kilometres (11,700 square miles). Belgium is comprised of a Dutch-speaking region (Flanders, with a population of some 6 million); a French-speaking region (Wallonia, with a population of 3.5 million) and a small Germanspeaking minority in the east; and the officially bilingual Capital of Brussels (with a population of about 1 million). Apart from the national government, each region (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) has its own government with regional authority.
