Belgians
Sign in to saveAlso known as Belgian people, Belgian
Belgians ( ; ; ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic. The majority of Belgians, however, belong to two distinct linguistic groups or communities (; ) native to the country, i.e. its historical regions: Flemings in Flanders, who speak Dutch, West Flemish and Limburgish; and Walloons in Wallonia, who speak French or Walloon. There is also a substantial Belgian diaspora, which has settled primarily in the United States, Canada
Key facts
- Ethnic group.pop30
- 1,050
- Ethnic group.group
- Belgians
- Ethnic group.image
- Map of the Belgian Diaspora in the World.svg
- Ethnic group.image_caption
- Map of the Belgian diaspora in the world
- Ethnic group.population
- 11–12 million
- Ethnic group.regions
- 10,839,905(Belgian nationality only, 1 January 2014)
- Ethnic group.pop1
- 384,244
- Ethnic group.pop2
- 190,455
- Ethnic group.pop3
- 145,118
- Ethnic group.pop4
- 117,495
- Ethnic group.pop5
- 46,000
- Ethnic group.pop6
- 31,796
- Ethnic group.pop7
- 20,000–50,000
- Ethnic group.pop8
- 31,000
- Ethnic group.pop9
- 25,000
- Ethnic group.pop10
- 22,000
- Ethnic group.pop11
- 17,000
- Ethnic group.pop12
- 14,189
via Wikipedia infobox
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Relations between Belgian linguistic communities
- Flemish (Dutch-speaking)
- Walloon (French-speaking)
- German-speaking community
- Religion
- Demographics
- See also
- References
- External links
Belgians ( ; ; ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic. The majority of Belgians, however, belong to two distinct linguistic groups or communities (; ) native to the country, i.e. its historical regions: Flemings in Flanders, who speak Dutch, West Flemish and Limburgish; and Walloons in Wallonia, who speak French or Walloon. There is also a substantial Belgian diaspora, which has settled primarily in the United States, Canada, France, and the Netherlands.
==Etymology== The 1830 revolution led to the establishment of an independent country under a provisional government and a national congress. The name "Belgium" was adopted for the country, the word being derived from Gallia Belgica, a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul that, before Roman invasion in 100 BC, was inhabited by the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Belgians” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.