User:Vb/Wallonia

This page is about the geographic term. For the Belgian federal region, see Walloon Region.

Flag of Wallonia

Location of Wallonia in Europe

Wallonia (Template:Lang-fr, Template:Lang-de, Template:Lang-nl, Template:Lang-wa) is the French-speaking southern part of Belgium. This region makes up about 31% of the Belgian population.

Since 1970, Wallonia has approximately coincided with the territory of the Walloon Region, which is a federated component of the Belgian state and provides a government and a parliament to both Wallonia and the smaller German-speaking Community of Belgium (73,000 inhabitants). Wallonia is therefore also the name colloquially given to the Walloon Region . The inhabitants of Wallonia are belonging to the French Community of Belgium also referred to as Wallonia-Brussels Community which includes both Wallonia and the French-speaking inhabitants of Brussels-Capital Region (a little less than one million inhabitants).

Wallonia takes its name from the Walloons (from the Germanic word Walha, the strangers), the population of the medieval Low Countries speaking Romance languages.

Geography

Wallonia has an area of ca. 5,000,000 m². Wallonia is tradionaly divided into several smaller geographical regions.

Wallonia extends over Middle and High Belgium. To Middle Belgium belong the regions of Hainaut, Brabant and Hesbaye. The valley of the Sambre and the Meuse rivers, the Sillon Industriel, is the frontier with High Belgium. The regions of Condroz, Famenne and the Land of Herve are usually considered as parts of High Belgium and are transitional areas to the Ardennes. The Gaume region is the southest part of Wallonia.