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City of Brussels Ville de Bruxelles (French) Stad Brussel (Dutch)
Geography
Country	Belgium
Region	Brussels-Capital Region
Community	French Community Flemish Community
Arrondissement	Brussels
Coordinates	50°51′N 04°21′E / 50.85, 4.35Coordinates: 50°51′N 04°21′E / 50.85, 4.35
Area	32.61 km²
Population (Source: NIS)
Population – Males – Females - Density	144,784 (January 1, 2006) 49.92% 50.08% 4440 inhab./km²
Economy
Unemployment rate	23.9% (January 1, 2006)
Mean annual income	9,393 €/pers. (2003)
Government
Mayor (list)	Freddy Thielemans (PS)
Other information
Postal codes	1000-1130
Area codes	02
Web address	www.brucity.be

The City of Brussels (French: Bruxelles-Ville or Ville de Bruxelles, Dutch: Stad Brussel) is one of the municipalities (the largest one) of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium and is the official capital of Belgium.

Somewhat in the way that the City of London is different from London, the City of Brussels is different from Brussels. However, the expansion of the City was frozen at a later stage than the City of London, so that in addition to the old centre of Brussels, the towns of Haren, Laken (Dutch) or Laeken (French) and Neder-Over-Heembeek (Dutch and French), the Louise Avenue and the Bois de la Cambre/Terkamerenbos are included.

On 1 January 2006, the City of Brussels had a total population of 144,784. The total area is 32.61 km² which gives a population density of 4,440 inhabitants per km². As of 2007, there were approximately 50,000 registered foreigners in Brussels City.^[1] According to the Belgian Constitution (Art. 194) the capital of Belgium is the City of Brussels municipality. Arguments that the use of lower case in "ville" and "stad" in Article 194 for "ville de Bruxelles" (French), "stad Brussel" (Dutch) makes a subtle difference and means that Brussels at large is the capital cannot be defended on a legal basis. However, although the City of Brussels is the official capital, the funds delegated by the federation and region for the representative role of the capital are divided among the 19 municipalities and, in practice, national Belgian institutions are indeed located not only in the City of Brussels, although many are, but also in most of the other 18 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital region. The implication is that de facto the entire Region serves as capital, but de jure only the City of Brussels is entitled to the title of capital of Belgium.

As in every other Belgian municipality, the City of Brussels is headed by a mayor, which should be confused with neither the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region nor the Governor of Brussels-Capital.

City of Brussels town hall by night

List of mayors of the City of Brussels

• Official web site of The City of Brussels (in French or Dutch only)
• Page related to The City of Brussels in the Brussels-Capital Region official web site
• Interactive map of Brussels historical city centre