Belgium is a federal state comprising three communities and three regions that are based on four language areas. For each of these subdivision types, the subdivisions together make up the entire country; in other words, the types overlap.

The language areas were established by the Second Gilson Act, which entered into force on 2 August 1963. The division into language areas was included in the Belgian Constitution in 1970.^[1] Through constitutional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, regionalisation of the unitary state led to a three-tiered federation: federal, regional, and community governments were created, a compromise designed to minimize linguistic, cultural, social, and economic tensions.^[2]

This is a schematic overview of the basic federal structure of Belgium as defined by Title I of the Belgian Constitution.

Each of the entities either have their own parliament and government (for the federal state, the communities and the regions) or their own council and executive college (for provinces and municipalities). The entities in italics do not have their own institutions—arrondissements because they are purely administrative; language areas because they merely define the linguistic regime of a municipality; and the Flemish Region because its powers are exercised by the Flemish Community.

More information Kingdom of Belgium ...

Federal state	1	Kingdom of Belgium
Language areas	4	Dutch					bilingual		French					German
Communities	3	Flemish Community						French Community						German- speaking Com.
Regions	3	Flemish Region					Brussels Capital Region		Walloon Region
Provinces	10	West Flanders	East Flanders	Antwerp	Limburg	Flemish Brabant	None		Walloon Brabant	Hainaut	Luxem­bourg	Namur	Liège/Lüttich
Arrondissements	43	8	6	3	3	2	1		1	7	5	3	4
Municipalities	581	64	60	69	42	65	19		27	69	44	38	75	9

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The three communities are:

• the (Dutch-speaking) Flemish Community (Vlaamse Gemeenschap)
• the French Community (Communauté française)
• the German-speaking Community (Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft, DG)

The three regions are:

• the Brussels Capital Region (Brussels; French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest)
• the Flemish Region (Flanders; Vlaams Gewest)
• the Walloon Region (Wallonia, Région wallonne, Wallonische Region)

The four language areas (as taalgebieden in Dutch and Sprachgebiete in German), occasionally referred to as linguistic regions (from French régions linguistiques), are:

• the Dutch language area
• the French language area
• the German language area
• the bilingual Brussels-Capital area

All these entities have geographical boundaries. The language areas have no offices or powers and exist de facto as geographical circumscriptions, serving only to delineate the empowered subdivisions. The institutional communities are thus equally geographically determined. Belgian Communities do not officially refer directly to groups of people but rather to specific political, linguistic and cultural competencies of the country.

All Communities thus have a precise and legally established area where they can exercise their competencies: the Flemish Community has legal authority (for its Community competencies) only within the Dutch language area (which coincides with the Flemish Region) and bilingual Brussels-Capital language area (which coincides with the Region by that name); the French Community analogously has powers only within the French language area of the Walloon Region and in the Brussels-Capital Region, and the German Community in the German language area, which is a small part of the province of Liège in the Walloon region, and borders Germany.

The constitutional language areas determine the official languages in their municipalities, as well as the geographical limits of the institutions empowered for specific matters:

More information Public services rendered in the language of individuals expressing themselves..., the Communities ...

	Public services rendered in the language of individuals expressing themselves...			the Communities			the Regions (and their provinces)			the Federal State
				Flemish[lower-alpha 1]	French	German- speaking	Flemish[lower-alpha 1]	Walloon	Brussels- Capital
	...in Dutch	...in French	...in German
Dutch language area	Y	in 12 municipalities (limited to 'facilities')	—	Y	—	—	Y	—	—	Y
French language area	in 4 municipalities (limited to 'facilities')	Y	in 2 municipalities (limited to 'facilities')	—	Y	—	—	Y	—	Y
Bilingual area Brussels-Capital	Y	Y	—	Y	Y	—	—	—	Y	Y
German language area	—	in all 9 municipalities (limited to 'facilities')	Y	—	—	Y	—	Y	—	Y
	By Law, inhabitants of 27[lower-alpha 2] municipalities can ask limited services to be rendered in a neighbour language, forming 'facilities' for them. 'Facilities' exist only in specific municipalities near the borders of the Flemish with the Walloon and with the Brussels-Capital Regions, and in Walloon Region also in 2 municipalities bordering its German language area as well as for French-speakers throughout the latter area.

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Although this would allow for seven parliaments and governments, when the Communities and Regions were created in 1980, Flemish politicians decided to officially merge the Flemish Region into the Flemish Community, with one parliament, one government and one administration, exercising both regional and community competencies, although Flemish parliamentarians from the Brussels-Capital Region cannot vote on competencies of the Flemish Region; thus in the Dutch language area a single institutional body of parliament and government is empowered for all except federal and specific municipal matters.^{[2][lower-alpha 1]} While the Walloon Region and the French Community have separate parliaments and governments, the Parliament of the French Community draws its members from the French-speaking members of the Walloon Parliament and the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, and ministers of the Walloon Government often serve as ministers in the Government of the French Community as well.

The Federal State retains a considerable "common heritage". This includes justice, defence (armed forces), federal police, social security, public debt and other aspects of public finances, nuclear energy, and state-owned companies (such as the Belgian Railways which is in fact an exception on regionalized transport; the Post Office was federal as well, but is being privatised). The State is responsible for the obligations of Belgium and its federalized institutions towards the European Union and NATO. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs.^[4]

Communities exercise competences only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a community's language: culture (including audiovisual media), education, the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly attributed to the language comprise health policy (curative and preventive medicine) and assistance to individuals (protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, etc.)^[5]

Regions have authority in fields connected with their territory in the widest meaning of the term, thus relating to the economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit, and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies.^[6]

In several fields, the different levels each have their own say on specificities. On education for instance, the autonomy of the communities neither includes decisions about the compulsory aspect nor sets minimum requirements for awarding qualifications, which remain federal matters.^[4] Each level can be involved in scientific research and international relations associated with its powers.^[5][6]

Communities were created in 1970 as "cultural communities" with limited power. In 1980, more power was transferred from the federal state to these entities and they became simply "communities".

Both the Flemish and French Community have jurisdiction over the area of the Brussels-Capital Region. Consequently, they do not have a defined number of inhabitants. The German-speaking Community is the only community with an area over which they have sole jurisdiction as a community. It is located within the Walloon Region, which has even transferred some regional powers to the German-speaking Community with regards to its area.

• Language legislation in Belgium
• Municipalities with language facilities