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  • Title: The Kingdom of Belgium: country profile.
    Author: Inserra P.
    Journal: Int Demogr; 1986 Sep; 5(9):1-8. PubMed ID: 12314565.
    Abstract:
    Focus in this discussion of Belgium is on: cities and regions, population change, households and families, labor force, consumption, communication and transport, and sources of information. Belgium was created in 1830 as a constitutional monarch and buffer state amidst great European powers. Its constitution creating a parliamentary system of government has served as a model for many emerging democracies. Unemployment dropped from more than 14% in 1984 to just over 12% in the 1st quarter of 1986. Belgium also is experiencing a somewhat improved balance of payments and respectable overall economic growth of around 2.5% through the 1st half of 1986 along with close trading links and minimum customs formalities with Luxembourg and Holland. Yet, wages lag behind inflation after the last government suspended an index system that mandated automatic income adjustments in line with the cost of living. In 1983, for the 1st time since the country's economic boom of the 1960s, purchasing power for the average Belgium declined. About 90% of Belgium's estimated 9,880,000 inhabitants live in cities and towns ranging over a territory of only 30,518 KM. Administratively, the region of Flanders has 5 provinces, Wallonia, 4. Regions are further broken down into arrondissements and communes. Belgium's under replacement level birth rate is expected to decline further, and its proportion of elderly persons in the total population is expected to rise, straining even further an already overburdened system of social security and health care. Belgium's 10-year intercensal population gain (between 1971-81) was the smallest in the country's history. Belgium's total population stood at 9,853,023 on January 1, 1984, a decline of almost 5000 from the preceding year. Belgium's average household size is decreasing due to a larger aged population, an upsurge in divorces and unmarried young couples, and a declining birth rate. About 1/3 of the population works. At mid-1984, the figure stood at 3,638,000. The service sector generates more than half the country's jobs. The largest share of household consumption in 1983 was on food, at 18.6%.
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