Introduction

Belgium (officially: the Kingdom of Belgium) is a country of northwestern Europe. Having an area of 30,528 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest and most densely populated European countries (the population is about 10.6 million people). Belgium is a hereditary, representative and constitutional monarchy. The country borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France. Belgium is one of the most heavily industrialized and urbanized countries in Europe. It is a member of the Benelux Economic Union (with the Netherlands and Luxembourg), the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Climate

The climate of Belgium is maritime temperate. In January the lowest average temperature is 3 °C. The highest average temperature in July reaches 18 °C. There is significant precipitation in all seasons. The average precipitation per month in February or April is 54 millimetres and in July it is 78 millimetres.

Economy

Due to the fact that Belgium is situated in a highly industrialized region the country ranks as one of the world's ten largest trading nations. The products imported by Belgium include machinery, rough diamonds, food products, clothing, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals and textiles. The country's exports are finished diamonds, automobiles, petroleum products, textiles, food and food products, iron and steel, plastics and nonferrous metals. The euro was adopted by Belgium in 1999, the European currency fully replaced the Belgian franc in 2002.

Tourism

Belgium is a popular tourist destination due to its advantageous geographical position - the country is easily accessible from many other European states. Tourism presents one of Belgium's smaller industries though – only 2.8% of Belgium's GDP is generated by the tourist industry, 3.3% of the working population (142,000 people) are employed by it. Many tourist centres are located either at the heavily developed coastline or in the Ardennes. Such cultural centres as Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp also attract many tourists.

Languages

The official languages in Belgium are Dutch, French and German. About 59% of the population speak Dutch (often referred to as Flemish), French is spoken by about 40% of the inhabitants. There are about 6.23 million Dutch speakers who live mostly in the northern Flanders region, about 3.32 million French speakers live in Wallonia and an estimated 0.87 million or 85% of the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. The German-speaking community includes about 73,000 people in the east of the Walloon Region, about 10,000 German and 60,000 Belgian nationals are speakers of German. There are also about 23,000 German speakers who live in different municipalities of Belgium.