International and domestic telegraph and telephone service, operated by a government agency, is well developed. There were 4,769,000 main line telephones in use in 1997 and 974,494 mobile cellular phones.National radio and television service is organized into Dutch and French branches. Commercial broadcasting is permitted, hence costs are defrayed through annual license fees on radio and television receivers. There are two national medium-wave stations, one broadcasting in French, the other in Dutch. In addition, there are five Dutch-language and three French-language regional stations. Three shortwave transmitters are used for overseas broadcasts. As of 1999, there were 5 AM and 77 FM radio stations and 24 television stations. Cable television subscribers can receive up to 13 additional stations, from the UK and Belgium's continental neighbors. In 1997 there were 8 million radios and 4.7 million television sets.

The Belgian press has full freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution of 1831. Newspapers are published in French and Dutch, and generally reflect the views of one of the major parties. Agence Belga is the official news agency.

About 500 weeklies appear in Belgium, most of them in French or Dutch and a few in German or English. Their overall weekly circulation is estimated to exceed 6.5 million copies.

The government of Belgium supports free speech and a free press. There are some restrictions on the press regarding slander, libel, and the advocating of racial or ethnic hate, violence, or discrimination.

As of 2000, there were 61 Internet service providers with 2.8 million Internet users in 2001.

Among Belgium's numerous learned societies are the French and Dutch organizations each bearing the names of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Medicine; in addition, there are the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature and the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature.

Business and industry are organized in the Belgium Business Federation (1885), the Chambers of Commerce, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels, as well as on the basis of industrial sectors and in local bodies. Among the latter, the Flemish and Walloon economic councils and the nine provincial economic councils are the most important.

Architects, painters, and sculptors are organized in the Association of Professional Artists of Belgium. Among the other occupational groups are the Belgian Medical Federation, the Association of Women Chief Executives, and the Belgian Students' Federation. There is a cultural council for each of the three official languages. The many sports societies include the Royal Belgian Athletic League, and soccer, cycling, archery, homing pigeon, tennis, hunting, boating, camping, and riding clubs. Veterans' and disabled veterans' associations, the Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, voluntary associations to combat the major diseases, and philanthropic societies are all active in Belgium.

There are large libraries, general and specialized, in the principal cities. Brussels has the kingdom's main reference collections, the Royal Library (founded in 1837), with about four million volumes, as well as the Library of Parliament (1835) with 600,000 volumes, the Library of the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences (681,000 volumes), and the General Archives of the Kingdom, founded in 1794, with 350,000 documents from the 11th to the 20th centuries. Antwerp is the seat of the Archives and the Museum of Flemish Culture, which has an open library of 55,000 volumes. The university libraries of Louvain (1.2 million volumes), Ghent (three million volumes), and Liège (1.7 million volumes) date back to 1425, 1797, and 1817, respectively. The library of the Free University of Brussels (1846) has 1.8 million volumes. Also in Brussels is the library of Commission of the European Communities. In addition, there are several hundred private, special, and business libraries, especially in Antwerp and Brussels, including Antwerp's International Peace Information Service (1981) with 25,000 volumes related to disarmament, and the library of the Center for American Studies in Brussels, with 30,000 volumes dealing with American civilization.

Belgium's 200 or more museums, many of them with art and historical treasures dating back to the Middle Ages and earlier, are found in cities and towns throughout the country. Among Antwerp's outstanding institutions are the Open-Air Museum of Sculpture in Middelheim Park, displaying works by Rodin, Maillol, Marini, Moore, and others; the Rubens House, containing 17th-century furnishings and paintings by Peter Paul Rubens; and the Folk Art Museum (1907) featuring popular music and crafts unique to Flemish Culture and mythology. Brussels' museums include the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (founded 1795), which has medieval, Renaissance, and modern collections; Royal Museum of Central Africa (1897), which has rich collections of African arts and crafts, natural history, ethnography, and prehistory; the Royal Museum of Art and History (1835), with its special collections of Chinese porcelain and furniture, Flemish tapestries, and of 18th- and 19th-century applied and decorative art; and the Museum of Modern Art, featuring 20th-century paintings, sculptures, and drawings. Museums in Bruges, Liège, Ghent, Malines, and Verviers have important general or local collections.

Adult illiteracy is virtually nonexistent. Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 18. The teaching language is that of the region—French, Dutch, or German. Belgium has two complete school systems operating side by side. One is organized by the state or by local authorities and is known as the official school system. The other, the private school system, is largely Roman Catholic. In 1995 private school enrollment accounted for 55.2% of all primary enrollment and 65.8% of secondary enrollment. For a long time, the rivalry between the public and private systems and the question of subsidies to private schools were the main issues in Belgian politics. The controversy was settled in 1958, and both systems are presently financed with government funds along more or less identical lines.

Since 1971, new constitutional guidelines have strengthened the autonomy of Wallonia and Flanders in educational administration and policymaking. Schools in both regions provide compulsory primary education for children from ages 6 through 12, followed by six years of secondary education.

In 1996, primary schools enrolled 742,796 students. The pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level was 13 to 1 in 1999. Secondary level schools had 1,058,998 students and approximately 127,000 teachers in 1996. Higher education centers on the eight main universities: the state universities of Ghent, Liège, Antwerp, and Mons; the two branches of the Free University of Brussels, which in 1970 became separate private institutions, one Dutch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and the other French (Université Libre de Bruxelles); the Catholic University of Brussels; and the Catholic University of Louvain, which also split in 1970 into the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven (Dutch) and the Université Catholique de Louvain (French). The higher-level institutions had 358,214 students in 1996.

Government expenditure for education rose rapidly after the school agreement of 1958 and accounted for about 6.0% of the government's budget in the latter part of the 1990s. As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 3.1% of GDP.

Every city or town in Belgium has a public assistance committee (elected by the city or town council), which is in charge of health and hospital services in its community. These committees organize clinics and visiting nurse services, run public hospitals, and pay for relief patients in private hospitals. There is a national health insurance plan, membership of which covers practically the whole population. A number of private hospitals are run by local communities or mutual aid societies attached to religious organizations. A school health program includes annual medical examinations for all school children. Private and public mental institutions include observation centers, asylums, and colonies where mental patients live in groups and enjoy a limited amount of liberty.

A number of health organizations, begun by private initiative and run under their own charters, now enjoy semiofficial status and receive government subsidies. Among them are the Belgian Red Cross, the National Tuberculosis Society, the League for Mental Hygiene, and the National Children's Fund. The last of these, working through its own facilities and through cooperating agencies, provides prenatal and postnatal consultation clinics for mothers, a visiting nurse service, and other health services. Health expenditures were estimated at 8.8% of total GDP as of 1999.

Roughly 60% of Belgium's hospitals are privately operated, nonprofit institutions. In 1995, there were 38,369 doctors in Belgium. The country had 287 hospitals at the beginning of 1997. As of 1999, there were an estimated 3.8 physicians and 7.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people. Nearly 100% of the Belgium population has access to health services. In 1999, the country immunized one-year-old children as follows: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 96%, and measles, 83%. The infant mortality rate in 2000 was 5 per 1,000 live births. Average life expectancy in 2000 was 78 years. As of 1999, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated at 7,700 and deaths from AIDS that year were estimated at fewer than 100. HIV prevalence was 0.15 per 100 adults. Between 1986 and 1994, 35% of the male population and 21% of the female population smoked.

Belgium no longer has a housing shortage. In the mid-1970s, an average of over 60,000 new dwellings were built every year; by the early 1980s, however, the government sought by reducing the value-added tax on residential construction to revitalize the depressed housing market. Public funds have been made available in increasing amounts to support the construction of low-cost housing, with low-interest mortgages granted by the General Savings and Retirement Fund. In the 1980s, over half of all housing units were one-family houses, and approximately one-fourth were apartments. Owners occupied 60% of all dwellings and 35% were rented. Housing starts totaled 46,645 in 1992, up from 44,484 in 1991. The total number of dwellings in 1991 was 4,198,000. The same year, at least 85% of all dwellings had access to the basic conveniences of safe water and sanitation systems.

Belgian economic policy is based upon the encouragement of private enterprise, with very little government intervention in the economy. Also, as a country heavily dependent upon foreign trade, Belgium has traditionally favored the freest exchange of goods, without tariffs or other limitations. Restrictions on free enterprise and free trade have always been due to external pressure and abnormal circumstances, as in time of war or economic decline.

To meet increased competition in world markets and to furnish relief for areas of the country suffering from chronic unemployment, the government has taken measures to promote the modernization of plants and the creation of new industries. Organizations have been established to provide financial aid and advice, marketing and scientific research, studies on methods of increasing productivity, and nuclear research for economic utilization. Government policy aims at helping industry to hold costs down and to engage in greater production of finished (rather than semifinished) goods. Results have been mixed, with greater success in chemicals and light manufacturing than in the critical iron and steel industry.

In 1993, the government modified its policy of forbidding more than 49% private ownership in government banks, insurance companies, and the national telecommunications company. In 2000, the government enacted tax reform, reducing corporate, trade, and income taxes. The tax cuts planned through 2006, although improving work and investment incentives, will have to be countered by reduced government spending to compensate for the lost revenue. The telecommunications sector has been liberalized, as have the gas and energy markets. The postal market as of 2003 had been liberalized only to cover the transportation of large packages. Sending goods by rail had been open to cross-border competition only since the beginning of 2003. Belgium successfully attained a budget deficit of less than 3% by the end of 1997, as stipulated by the European Union (EU). Due to a strict control of spending, the budget was balanced in 2001. However, the Belgian economy remained weak in 2002, largely due to a slowdown in Germany and the Netherlands, Belgium's major trading partners. Investments declined for the first time ever, by 2.3%, in 2002.