Talk:Demographics of Belgium

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Quite funny to rely on a source that does speak about "Tensions between the Dutch-speaking Flemings of the north and the French-speaking Walloons", but that did not find out that there are not only "regions" as a result of this, but also fully official, recognised and heavily funded 'communities'. I can't say this represqentation of actual belgian society and its institutions appears reliable, nor accurate to me. No wonder that they failed to notice that the nearly 10% of the belgian living in the Brussels region do indeed belong to either the Flemish community, either the French, and that they do have either french, or Dutch as their main language for public life. See in History of belgium for a more detailled discussion on the languages.

    Rudi Dieric,   31 July 2004,  Etterbeek-Brussels

Welcome to the EUROPEAN UNION

Question: Can Flemings and Walloons be considered different ethnic groups? --Ganchelkas 13:09, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Ethnic? Not really. Merely cultural and political. There are several prominent Walloon politicians with Flemish names (André Cools, Laurette Onkelinx, Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe,...), who are descendants of Flemish migrant workers, and thus of Flemish ethnicity but French culture. On the other hand, there are a lot of Flemings with French-sounding names.... LHOON 13:38, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Then why does this article say they are? --Ganchelkas 15:30, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Better comment it out in fact awaiting some ground discussion LHOON 18:28, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I did a copy edit of the article, and among other thing, I put the section back in. After reading the Ethnic Group page, I felt that the term could apply, although this decision is based upon my limited knowledge of the terms "Flemish" and "Walloon" (I am, after all, not Belgian). In any case, if the phrase "Ethnic Group" is inappropriate, simply replace the term with a better one, as the data is pertinent to the article. - Runch 17:49, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Could you please NOT use the CIA factbook data? Those are worthless. Please check http://www.statbel.fgov.be/ instead