Belgium
Atomium, Brussels
Belgium
Science in Belgium
Belgium is the birthplace of Smurfs, French fries and the saxophone. It's easy to forget that we also have a Belgian to thank for a central theory in physics: the theory of the big bang, according to which our universe emerged from a single explosion. It was invented by the Belgian physicist and mathematician Georges Henri Lemaître at the end of the 1920s. Researchers now have a pretty good idea of how much time has passed since the Big Bang: around 13.7 billion years.
The Facts
| Population | 11,429,336 |
| Area | 30,528 km² |
| Gross domestic product per capita in US-Dollar | 47,554.7 |
| Public expenditure on education (share of GDP) | 6.2 % |
| Share of female researchers | 34.8 % |
| Universities | 81 |
| Universities per 1 million inhabitants | 7.10 |
| Students | 512,097 |
| Expenditure on Research and Development (share of GDP) | 2.7 (share of GDP) |
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