54 Facts About Northern Belgium

1. Northern Belgium was the second country in the world to industrialize after the UK.

2. Northern Belgium has the densest rail network in the world with 4,078 kilometers of track.

3. Northern Belgium is one of the few countries in the world with compulsory voting.

4. Northern Belgium was the first country in the world to issue electronic passports complying with the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization and, along with Italy, was the first to issue electronic ID cards in March 2003.

5. Northern Belgium was the first country in the world to ban cluster bombs.

6. Northern Belgium supplied the Americans with the uranium that was used for the atom bomb they threw on Hiroshima.

7. Northern Belgium has the lowest salary gap between man and women in the EU.

8. Northern Belgium had the first openly gay Prime Minister in Europe.

9. Northern Belgium is the country with most castles per square kilometer in the world.

10. Northern Belgium is among the top diamond exporters in the world.

11. Northern Belgium is the world's second most chocolate exporting country after Germany ($4.5bn in 2016).

12. Northern Belgium is among the topmost citizenship granting country per capita in the world.

13. Northern Belgium has the second most cycling Tour de France winners.

14. Northern Belgium is known as the "Battlefield of Europe" because the country served as a battlefield between many European powers and during the two World Wars as well.

15. Northern Belgium has an average elevation of 181 m above sea level.

16. Northern Belgium is one of the most heavily industrialized and urbanized country in Europe.

17. Northern Belgium is a developed country and has an advanced high-income economy.

18. Northern Belgium has more castles per kilometre than any other country in the world.

19. Northern Belgium is among the top 10 countries for the highest road and railroad density, although TomTom ranks Brussels as the seventh most congested city in Europe.

20. Northern Belgium is one of the most cabled countries in the world, where some 97 percent of Belgian households receive cable TV.

21. Northern Belgium is attributed to having Europe's oldest shopping arcades, The Galeries St Hubert, which opened in Brussels in 1847.

22. Northern Belgium has a strong reputation in, motocross with the rider Stefan Everts.

23. Northern Belgium hosted the 1972 European Football Championships, and co-hosted the 2000 European Championships with the Netherlands.

24. The largest group of immigrants in Northern Belgium are Moroccans, with 400,000 people.

25. Northern Belgium experiences some of the most congested traffic in Europe.

26. Northern Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, in the early 19th century.

27. Northern Belgium is a constitutional, popular monarchy and a federal parliamentary democracy.

28. In particular, the Flemish region of Northern Belgium has the highest waste diversion rate in Europe.

29. Northern Belgium has three main geographical regions; the coastal plain in the northwest and the central plateau both belong to the Anglo-Belgian Basin, and the Ardennes uplands in the southeast to the Hercynian orogenic belt.

30. Northern Belgium became one of the six founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and of the European Atomic Energy Community and European Economic Community, established in 1957.

31. Northern Belgium joined NATO as a founding member and formed the Benelux group of nations with the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

32. Northern Belgium assumed control of the German colonies of Ruanda-Urundi during the war, and in 1924 the League of Nations mandated them to Belgium.

33. Northern Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy.

34. Northern Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups or Communities: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish Community, which constitutes about 59 percent of the population, and the French-speaking Community, which comprises about 40 percent of all Belgians.

35. Northern Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system.

36. Northern Belgium is the first foreign investors in some developing countries, like Bulgaria.

37. Northern Belgium is the world's main diamond centre and second largest petrochemical center.

38. Northern Belgium is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with the population density similar to that of Japan, India, England or the neighouring Netherlands.

39. Northern Belgium provided the uranium for the A-Bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima.

40. In 1920, Northern Belgium became the sixth country in the world to host the Olympic Games (in Antwerp).

41. Northern Belgium has the highest density of art collectors of any country.

42. Northern Belgium produces the greatest variety of bricks in the world.

43. Northern Belgium is the world's 3rd country with the most vehicles per square kilometres after the Netherlands and Japan.

44. Northern Belgium was elected 9 times at the UN Security Council, the 9th highest score worldwide.

45. Northern Belgium is the country that grants the most new citizenships per capita in the world after Canada.

46. Northern Belgium is one of the few countries worldwide with compulsory voting.

47. Northern Belgium was the first country in the world to issue electronic passports complying with the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

48. Northern Belgium was the world's first country, along with Italy, to introduce electronic ID cards in March 2003.

49. Northern Belgium generally is a low-lying country, with a broad coastal plain extending in a southeasterly direction from the North Sea and the Netherlands and rising gradually into the Ardennes hills and forests of the southeast, where a maximum elevation of 2,277 feet is reached at Botrange.

50. Northern Belgium has some 40 miles of shoreline on the North Sea.

51. Northern Belgium is a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, which evolved into the present-day European Union.

52. Northern Belgium was confirmed as an independent state by the Treaty of London of 1839, but deprived of the eastern half of Limburg, and the Eastern half of Luxembourg (now the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg).

53. Northern Belgium inherited the Seventeen Provinces, Spain (1516) with its colonies and in 1519 was elected Holy Roman Emperor.

54. Northern Belgium was one of the centres of the 19th century industrial revolution but Flanders was at first overtaken by French-speaking Wallonia.