Subdivisions of Belgium
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Belgium is a federal state and is composed of three communities, three regions, and four linguistic regions. Two regions, Flanders and Wallonia, each comprise five provinces; the third region, Brussels-Capital Region, is neither a province, nor does it contain any. These subdivisions are laid out in the Belgian constitution.
Belgium also comprises 589 municipalities, which in general consist of several sub-municipalities (which were independent municipalities before the municipal merger operation of 1977). These are the five most important subdivisions of Belgium, as laid out into the Belgian constitution (as far as the first four subdivisions are concerned) and law (as far as the municipalities are concerned).
| Communities: | Regions: | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flemish Region
(yellow) |
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| Flemish Community
(yellow * ) |
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| Brussels-Capital Region
(orange * ) |
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| French Community
(red * ) |
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| Walloon Region
(red, incl. blue striped) |
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| Germanophone Community
(red & blue striped) |
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Other subdivisions include the intra-municipal districts, the electoral districts, judicial districts and police districts, as well as the new inter-municipal police zones (lower level than the police districts).
All these subdivisions have geographical boundaries: the regions, the linguistic regions, the Communities, the provinces and the municipalities. The division by communities is equally geographically delimited: The Flemish government has legal authority (for its Community competencies) only within the areas of the Flemish and Brussels region; the French-speaking Community analogously has powers only within the areas of the Walloon and Brussels region. Belgian Communities do not officially refer directly to groups of people – there is indeed no subnationality in Brussels – but rather to the political, linguistic and cultural competencies of the country.
All Communities thus have a precise and legally established area where they can exert their competencies: the Flemish Community is competent in the Flemish and Brussels regions; the French-speaking Community in the Walloon (French linguistic region) and Brussels regions, and the German Community only in a small part of the province of Liège (Wallonia), bordering with Germany, which is the German linguistic region.
See also: ISO 3166-2:BE, the ISO codes for the regions and provinces of Belgium.
Communities: Flemish • French • German
Regions and provinces:
Brussels-Capital Region (not a province, neither has it provinces, nor is it part of one)
Flanders: Antwerp • East Flanders • Flemish Brabant • Limburg • West Flanders
Wallonia: Hainaut • Liège • Luxembourg • Namur • Walloon Brabant
Arrondissements: Administrative • Judicial • Electoral
Municipalities: of the Brussels-Capital Region • of Flanders • of Wallonia
