Capital: Brussels

Population: 10,182,034 (July 1999 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 17% (male 895,987; female 853,494)
15-64 years: 66% (male 3,389,572; female 3,318,266)
65 years and over: 17% (male 703,933; female 1,020,782) (1999 est.)

Economy—overview: This highly developed private enterprise economy has capitalized on its central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and diversified industrial and commercial base. Industry is concentrated mainly in the populous Flemish area in the north, although the government is encouraging reinvestment in the southern region of Wallonia. With few natural resources, Belgium must import substantial quantities of raw materials and export a large volume of manufactures, making its economy unusually dependent on the state of world markets. Two-thirds of its trade is with other EU countries. Belgium's public debt fell from 127% of GDP in 1996 to 122% of GDP in 1998 and the government is trying to control its expenditures to bring the figure more into line with other industrialized countries. Belgium became a charter member of the European Monetary Union (EMU) in January 1999.

GDP: purchasing power parity—$236 billion (1998 est.)

GDP—real growth rate: 2.8% (1998 est.)

GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$23,400 (1998 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1% (1998 est.)

Industrial production growth rate: 9.7% (1995)

Telephones: 5.691 million (1992 est.); 1.7 million cellular telephone subscribers (1998)

Telephone system: highly developed, technologically advanced, and completely automated domestic and international telephone and telegraph facilities
domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; extensive cable network; limited microwave radio relay network
international: 5 submarine cables; satellite earth stations—2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Eutelsat

Radio broadcast stations: AM 5, FM 77, shortwave 1 (Belgium's single shortwave station, Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal, transmits its programs internationally in Dutch, English, French, and German, using 21 shortwave frequencies)

Radios: 100,000 (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 24 (in addition, there are Dutch programs on cable, TV-5 Europe by satellite relay, and American Forces Network by relay from Germany) (1997)

Televisions: 3,315,662 (1993 est.)