PRCS's Twinning Country for YOG – Belgium – Lets get to know them better!
A. Country Statistics
Map of Belgium
Quick facts about Belgium with comparison to Singapore .
|
Belgium |
Singapore |
Population: |
10,414,336 (July 2009 est.) |
4,657,542 (July 2009 est.) |
Age structure: |
0-14 years: 16.1% (male 857,373/female 822,303)
15-64 years: 66.3% (male 3,480,072/female 3,419,721)
65 years and over: 17.6% (male 760,390/female 1,074,477) (2009 est.) |
0-14 years: 14.4% (male 348,382/female 324,050)
15-64 years: 76.7% (male 1,737,972/female 1,833,415)
65 years and over: 8.9% (male 184,393/female 229,330) (2009 est.) |
Median age: |
total: 41.7 years
male: 40.4 years
female: 43 years (2008 est.) |
total: 39 years
male: 38.5 years
female: 39.4 years (2008 est.) |
Population growth rate: |
0.094% (2009 est.) |
0.998% (2009 est.) |
Birth rate: |
10.22 births/1,000 population (2008 est.) |
8.99 births/1,000 population (2008 est.) |
Death rate: |
10.38 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) |
4.53 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) |
Net migration rate: |
1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
5.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
Urbanization: |
urban population: 97% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 0.3% annual rate of change (2005-2010) |
urban population: 100% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 1.2% annual rate of change (2005-2010) |
Sex ratio: |
at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2009 est.) |
at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2009 est.) |
Infant mortality rate: |
total: 4.44 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 4.99 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 3.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) |
total: 2.31 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 2.51 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 2.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) |
Life expectancy at birth: |
total population: 79.22 years
male: 76.06 years
female: 82.53 years (2009 est.) |
total population: 81.98 years
male: 79.37 years
female: 84.78 years (2009 est.) |
Total fertility rate: |
1.65 children born/woman (2009 est.) |
1.09 children born/woman (2009 est.) |
Nationality: |
noun: Belgian(s)
adjective: Belgian |
noun: Singaporean(s)
adjective: Singapore |
Ethnic groups: |
Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, mixed or other 11% |
Chinese 76.8%, Malay 13.9%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4% (2000 census) |
Religions: |
Roman Catholic 75%, other (includes Protestant) 25% |
Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Taoist 8.5%, Hindu 4%, Catholic 4.8%, other Christian 9.8%, other 0.7%, none 14.8% (2000 census) |
Languages: |
Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, German (official) less than 1%, legally bilingual (Dutch and French) |
Mandarin 35%, English 23%, Malay 14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%, Cantonese 5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil 3.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.8%, other 0.9% (2000 census) |
Literacy: |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.) |
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.5%
male: 96.6%
female: 88.6% (2000 census) |
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): |
total: 16 years
male: 16 years
female: 16 years (2006) |
total: 16 years
male: 16 years
female: 16 years (2006) |
Education expenditures: |
6% of GDP (2004) |
3.7% of GDP (2001) |
B. Sports in Belgium
Popular Sports in Belgium
Football a.k.a. soccer is the most popular sport in Belgium . Standard de Liege , Club Brugge and R.S.C. Anderlecht are important football teams in the Belgian football league system . Tennis , cycling , athletics , volleyball , basketball , hockey , and judo are other dominant sports in Belgian society, with many important historical and current sportspersons.
Present-day sportspeople from Belgium
Belgium has successful sportsmen and sportswoman in various disciplines; Tia Hellebaut (high jumping), Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin (tennis), Kim Gevaert (athletics), Tom Boonen (cycling), Ann Wauters (basketball), Sven Nys (cyclo-cross), Stefan Everts (motocross) and Kevin van der Perren (figure skating) are some of the athletes at the top of their sport. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Count Jacques Rogge is also an important figure in the sport world in Belgium. Johan Bruyneel is the directeur sportif of Team Discovery (formerly U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ) and has directed the team through Lance Armstrong 's seven victories of the Tour de France .
Historical sportspeople from Belgium
In the past Belgium has also known many important sportspeople.In cycle racing , some important names are Eddy Merckx , Rik Van Looy , Roger De Vlaeminck , Lucien Van Impe , Patrick Sercu and Johan Museeuw . Among the notable soccer players from Belgium are Jean-Marie Pfaff , Eric Gerets , Enzo Scifo , Michel Preud'homme , Franky Van Der Elst and Jan Ceulemans . Other greats in Belgian sport history are Ivo Van Damme and Gaston Roelants , Jacky Ickx , Thierry Boutsen , Raymond Ceulemans , Jean-Michel Saive , Robert Van De Walle , Eddy Lejeune , Gaston Rahier , Gella Vandecaveye , Ingrid Berghmans , Frederik Deburghgraeve and Stefan Everts .
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
C. Education in Belgium
Education in Belgium is regulated and for the larger part financed by one of the three communities . The national legislator only kept a very few, minimal competences for education as the age for mandatory schooling, and, indirectly, the financing of the communities. All the three communities have a unified school system, with small differences between the different communities.
The schools can be divided in three groups ( Dutch : netten ; French : réseaux ):
- Schools owned by the communities ( GO! Onderwijs van de Vlaamse gemeenschap ; réseau de la Communauté française )
- Subsidized public schools ( officieel gesubsidieerd onderwijs ; réseau officiel subventionné ), organized by provinces and municipalities
- Subsidized free schools ( vrij gesubsidieerd onderwijs ; réseau libre subventionné ), mainly organized by an organization affiliated to the Catholic church
The latter is the largest group, both in number of schools and in number of pupils.
Education in Belgium is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 18. Private home education is possible, and the numbers are rising slowly. For the year 2005—2006 the number of home schooled children in Flanders rose to 580 out of a total of 1 million.
In the 2003 PISA-study by the OECD , the Belgian students scored relatively high. The results of the Dutch-speaking students were significantly higher than the scores of the German-speaking students which were in turn significantly higher than the French-speaking students.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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