Location: Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between France and the Netherlands
Geographic coordinates: 50° 50' N, 4° 0' E
Coastline km: 66.5 km km
Climate: temperate; mild winters, cool summers; rainy, humid, cloudy
Terrain: flat coastal plains in northwest, central rolling hills, rugged mountains of Ardennes Forest in southeast
Elevation: lowest point: North Sea 0 m highest point: Signal de Botrange 694 m
Natural hazards: flooding is a threat along rivers and in areas of reclaimed coastal land, protected from the sea by concrete dikes
Currency: Euro (Eur)
Population: 10,364,388 (July 2005 est.)
Languages: Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, German (official) less than 1%, legally trilingual (Dutch, French, German)
Capital: Brussels
Divisions: 10 provinces (French: provinces, singular - province; Dutch: provincies, singular - provincie) and 3 regions* (French: regions; Dutch: gewesten); Antwerpen, Brabant Wallon, Brussels* (Bruxelles), Flanders*, Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur, Oost-Vlaanderen, Vlaams-Brabant, Wallonia*, West-Vlaanderen note: as a result of the 1993 constitutional revision that furthered devolution into a federal state, there are now three levels of government (federal, regional, and linguistic community) with a complex division of responsibilities