Belgium is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, and is fairly densely populated (11,431,406 inhabitants in a territory of 30,527.9 square kilometers on 1st January 2019).

It has three official languages: Dutch, French and German.

Today, it is a federal state, composed of entities defined either on a geographical basis (the Brussels-Capital Region, the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region), or on a linguistic basis (the Flemish Community, the French Community and the German-Speaking Community). Competence for cultural matters, and childcare and education in particular, mainly lies with the Communities, while training is a regional competence.