Wallonia

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Revision as of 11:46, 8 July 2008 by imported>Stéphane Dohet (New page: '''Wallonia''' (in French Wallonie, in Walloon Walonreye, in German Wallonien, in Dutch Wallonië ; officially '''Walloon Region''') is one of the three autonomous Regions of federal [[Bel...)
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Wallonia (in French Wallonie, in Walloon Walonreye, in German Wallonien, in Dutch Wallonië ; officially Walloon Region) is one of the three autonomous Regions of federal Belgium.

It is predominantly French-speaking but there are also German-speaking municipalities in the east. As the other regions, Wallonia has its own parliament and government and exercises its functions by the limits defined by the Belgian constitution and special laws. Its capital is Namur. Its official languages are French in the French language region and German in the German language region.

Geography

Wallonia has a territory of 16,844 km² (55.18% of Belgium) occupying the southern part of Belgium.

Wallonia's backbone is the sillon industriel, which runs from Mons in the west to Verviers in the east, and is home to about two thirds of its population.

Administrative divisions

It comprises the following provinces :

  1. Walloon Brabant
  2. Hainaut
  3. Liège
  4. Luxembourg
  5. Namur

It is also divided into 20 administrative arrondissements and 262 municipalities.

Municipalities

The largest Walloon municipalities include, as of 2007's population figures: [1]