Vilvoorde

Vilvoorde (French: Vilvorde) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the city of Vilvoorde proper and the town of Peutie. On January 1, 2005 Vilvoorde had a total population of 36,956. The total area is 21.48 km² which gives a population density of 1,720.57 inhabitants per km². Since 2000, the mayor of Vilvoorde is former Belgian prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene.

The official language is Flemish (as everywhere in Flanders).

The city also contains an exceptionally large Spanish society. In the center 1 out of 10 inhabitants have the Spanish nationality and an even greater number of "Belgians" with Spanish roots. Most of them (at least for the first generation) immigrated after the second world war. Approximately 3/4 of them come from the same place: Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo in Andalusia.