Distillers Country guides / Belgium
Belgium
A one-page guide to Belgium for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Brussels
- Official languages
- Dutch, French, German
- Currency
- Euro (EUR)
- Time zone
- UTC+1 (UTC+2 summer)
- Area
- 30,689 km²
People
- Population
- 11.9 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 0.7% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 87.7%
- Aged under 15
- 15.7%
- Aged 65 and over
- 21.0%
- Life expectancy
- 82.3 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$725.5 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$60,750 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 0.98% (2025)
- Inflation
- 2.47% (2025)
Climate
Maritime temperate with rain in every season; January average about 3 C, July about 18 C; monthly precipitation 54-78 mm.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- Purchase 16 for beer/wine/other drinks; 18 for distilled spirits and drinks above set strengths (since 10 January 2010)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 9.54 litres of pure alcohol (2024)
- Traditional drinks
- Beer (Trappist, abbey, lambic and many styles), Genever (jenever)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); World Bank API (population, area, GDP, growth, inflation); WHO GHO OData (SA_0000001688); UN Comtrade public preview API (HS 2208); Wikipedia: Belgium; Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; Wikipedia: Beer in Belgium; KVK - importing spirits (EU duty 0%); BusinessCoot - Belgian spirits market. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.