Belgium is divided into 589 municipalities (Dutch: gemeenten, French: communes, German: Gemeinde) grouped into three regions and 10 provinces, except the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital region which do not belong to any of the 10 provinces.
The municipalities are the smallest administrative subdivisions of Belgium.
After municipalities were merged in 1977 (major merging) and 1983 (merging of the municipalities of Antwerp), the number came down to 589.
The first well-documented population move was the conquest of the region by the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC, followed in the 5th century by the Germanic Franks.
An estimated 98 percent of the adult population is literate. Education is compulsory from the ages of six to 18, but many Belgians continue to study until the age of about 23.
Belgians have a reputation for loving waffles and French fries, actually both originally from Belgium; the national food is steak (or mussels) with French fries and lettuce.
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