The Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and for a short stretch by the North Sea. It is one of the founding and core members of the European Union, hosting its headquarters, as well as those of many other major international organizations, such as NATO. Belgium has a population of over ten-and-a-half million people, in an area of around 30,000 square kilometres (11,700 square miles).
Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is linguistically divided. The Dutch-speaking northern region, Flanders, houses 58% of the population. Another 10% inhabits the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, for approximately 85% using French In this enclave within the Flemish Region however, neither language is the primary one for roughly half of the residents French is the language in the southern region Wallonia apart from most of the 73,000 inhabitants of its German-speaking Community This linguistic diversity often leads to political and cultural conflict and is reflected in Belgiums complex system of government and political historyGallia Belgica, named after a group of mostly Celtic tribes, Belgae]]]
