Luxembourg
Name
| Official name | Grand Duchy of Luxembourg — Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg · Grand-Duché de Luxembourg · Großherzogtum Luxemburg |
|---|---|
| Former names | The County of Luxembourg (1059–1354); the Duchy of Luxembourg (1354–1795) under Burgundy, Spain, Austria and France; the Forêts department of France (1795–1814); the grand duchy in personal union with the Netherlands (1815–1890) |
| Demonym | Luxembourger; Luxembourgish as the adjective |
| Meaning of the name | Lucilinburhuc — the "little fortress," the castle on the Bock that Count Siegfried of the Ardennes acquired from the abbey of St. Maximin of Trier on 12 April 963 |
| Motto | "Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn" — we want to remain what we are; from the song "De Feierwon" of 1859 by Michel Lentz |
Quick facts
| Capital | Luxembourg City — Lëtzebuerg; the castle of 963, the fortress of 1867, the seat of the grand duchy and of the European institutions on the Kirchberg; about 140,000 |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Luxembourg City; Esch-sur-Alzette, about 37,000, the capital of the Red Lands and the university; Differdange; Dudelange; Pétange; Sanem; Hesperange; Bettembourg; Schifflange; Käerjeng |
| Official languages | Three — Luxembourgish, the national language since the law of 24 February 1984, a Moselle Franconian tongue spoken by a majority; French, the language of the laws and the courts, the lingua franca of the shops and the cross-border workers; German, the language of the press and the primary schools; English on the Kirchberg and in the funds; Portuguese by one in seven |
| Currency | Euro — EUR, €; from 1 January 1999, the notes of 1 January 2002, replacing the Luxembourg franc at 40.3399 |
| Time zone | Central European Time, UTC+1; summer time UTC+2 |
| Calling code | +352 |
| Internet domain | .lu |
| ISO 3166 codes | LU · LUX · 442 |
| Vehicle registration code | L |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F |
| Independence | 19 April 1839, the Treaty of London, the borders of today; 11 May 1867, the second Treaty of London, perpetual neutrality and the fortress razed; 23 November 1890, the crown passed from the Dutch kings to Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg, the dynasty of today |
| National days | 23 June, the National Day, the Grand Duke's official birthday since 1961, with the torchlight parade and the fireworks of the eve; 1 May; 9 May, Europe Day, a holiday since 2019; 15 August; 1 November; Christmas and St. Stephen's; Easter Monday, Ascension and Whit Monday; the Schueberfouer fair of late August since 1340; the Éimaischen and the Octave of spring |
| Constitution | 1 July 2023 — the revised Constitution, the first full rewrite since 17 October 1868, adopted in four revisions of 2020–2022: the grand duchy kept as a parliamentary democracy, the Grand Duke's "sanction" of laws gone since 2009 after Henri refused to sign the euthanasia law, the Luxembourgish language, the animals and the right to housing written in; the referendum of 7 June 2015 that rejected the vote for foreign residents by 78% |
| Population | 643,941 at the census of 8 November 2021; 690,959 on 1 January 2026 (STATEC) — 46.6% foreign nationals; up 1.3% in a year, from 364,000 in 1981 |
| Area | 2,586 km² (998 sq mi) — landlocked; 82 km north to south, 57 km east to west |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Three horizontal bands of red, white and light blue — the colors of the Grand Duke's arms, the red lion on the barry of white and blue — flown since 1845 and fixed by the law of 23 June 1972, told from the Dutch flag by its lighter sky blue and its longer 3:5 shape; the Roude Léiw, the red lion on ten stripes of white and blue, the ensign since 1972, the flag of the stadiums and of the petition of 2006 that asked to make it the national flag.Flag of Luxembourg |
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| Coat of arms | A red lion rampant, crowned in gold, with a forked tail, on a barry of ten of white and blue — the arms of the counts of Luxembourg since the 13th century, of Henry V "the Blond"; the greater arms with the crown and the mantle, the lesser with the wreath of the Order of the Oak Crown; fixed by the law of 23 June 1972 |
| National anthem | "Ons Heemecht" ("Our Homeland") — words by Michel Lentz, 1859, music by Jean Antoine Zinnen, first sung at Ettelbruck on 5 June 1864; the first and last verses the anthem by the law of 17 June 1993; "De Wilhelmus" the anthem of the grand-ducal house |
| National motto | "Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn" |
| National colors | Red, white and light blue; the red lion |
| National animal | The red lion — the Roude Léiw of the arms and the flag, the name of the national teams; widely cited |
| National flower | The rose — the growers of Limpertsberg who sent six million roses a year across Europe by 1900, the "land of roses"; widely cited and unofficial |
| National tree | The oak — the Order of the Oak Crown of 1841; the beech of the Ardennes forests; widely cited |
| National dish | Judd mat Gaardebounen — smoked pork collar with broad beans in a cream sauce, the national dish by acclamation; Bouneschlupp, the green-bean soup; Gromperekichelcher, the potato fritters of the fairs; Kniddelen, the dumplings; Kachkéis, the cooked cheese; the Crémant and the Riesling of the Moselle; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, the arms and the ensign are fixed by the law of 23 June 1972; the anthem by the law of 17 June 1993; the animal, flower, tree and dishes widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Western Europe, landlocked — Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east across the Our, the Sûre and the Moselle, France to the south; the Ardennes in the north, the Lorraine plateau in the south |
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| Land borders | 327 km (203 mi) with three neighbors — Belgium 130, Germany 128, France 69; the Schengen agreement of 1985 signed on a boat on the Moselle where the three meet |
| Coastline | None — landlocked; Mertert on the Moselle the river port |
| Highest point | Kneiff, 560 m (1,837 ft), near Troisvierges in the far north; the Buurgplaatz of the older lists 559 m |
| Lowest point | The Moselle at Wasserbillig, 133 m (436 ft) |
| Mean elevation | About 325 m (1,066 ft) |
| Rivers | The Moselle, the German border for 39 km, canalized in 1964, the river of the vineyards; the Sûre — Sauer — across the whole country from Belgium to the Moselle, 173 km; the Alzette, 73 km, through Esch, the capital and Mersch to the Sûre; the Our of the eastern border; the Attert, the Clerve, the Wiltz, the Mamer, the Eisch, the Syre, the Ernz |
| Lakes | The Upper Sûre lake, 3.8 km², behind the dam of Esch-sur-Sûre of 1958 — the country's drinking water and its only bathing lake; the ponds of Weiswampach and Remerschen; the two basins of Vianden on the Mount Saint-Nicolas, the pumped-storage plant of 1964 among the largest in Europe |
| Terrain | The Oesling — Éislek — of the north, a third of the land, the Ardennes plateau of forests, gorges and the castles of Vianden, Clervaux and Bourscheid, 400–560 m; the Gutland of the south, two-thirds, the rolling farmland of sandstone and marl; the Little Switzerland of the Mullerthal of rock and beech; the Red Lands — the Minett — of the iron ore along the French border; the Moselle valley of the terraces |
| Climate | Temperate and mild — cool summers, mild winters; about 880 mm of rain at the capital, more in the Ardennes; the Oesling colder by two degrees; the Moselle valley the warmest, the wine |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the Alzette and the Sûre in January 2003, the deluge of 14–15 July 2021 that flooded Echternach, Vianden and the valleys; the tornado of Pétange and Bascharage of 9 August 2019; the storms of the Ardennes; the French nuclear plant of Cattenom 10 km from the border, the country's standing fear |
| Natural resources | The iron ore of the Minett, worked from 1850 to 1981 and the source of the steel; the slate of Martelange; the forests; the farmland; the Moselle vineyards; the water of the Sûre |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 50%; forest about 34% |
| National parks | No national park — three nature parks: the Upper Sûre (1999), the Our (2005) and the Mëllerdall (2016); the Minett biosphere reserve of UNESCO (2020) over the Red Lands; the Mullerthal Trail of 112 km |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — the City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications (1994), the Bock and the Grund, the casemates of 23 km hewn from 1644; the hopping procession of Echternach on the intangible list (2010), the Whit Tuesday procession of the pilgrims to St. Willibrord; the Family of Man, Edward Steichen's exhibition of 1955 at the castle of Clervaux, on the Memory of the World register (2003) |
| Administrative divisions | 12 cantons — Capellen, Clervaux, Diekirch, Echternach, Esch-sur-Alzette, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg, Mersch, Redange, Remich, Vianden, Wiltz — of 100 communes since 2023; the three districts abolished in 2015; four constituencies for the vote — Centre, Sud, Nord, Est |
People
| Population | 643,941 (census of 2021); 690,959 (1 January 2026, STATEC) |
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| Population density | About 267 per km² (692 per sq mi) |
| Population growth | About 1.3% a year (2025) — 24,985 arrivals and 17,141 departures, the natural increase 2,043; from 2 to 2.5% a year in the 2010s; the population up 90% since 1981 |
| Median age | About 40 years — the foreign residents younger |
| Life expectancy | About 83 years — 81 for men, 85 for women |
| Fertility rate | About 1.2 births per woman (2025) — a record low |
| Urban population | About 92% |
| Adult literacy | About 100% |
| Nationalities | Luxembourgers 53.4%; foreign nationals 46.6% of 180 nationalities (1 January 2026) — Portuguese 12.8% of the whole population, French 7.1%, Italian 3.7%, Belgian 2.6%, German 1.8%; three of every four foreigners EU citizens; Ukrainians the largest non-EU community at 6,028 and Indians the second at 5,728; one in five Luxembourgers a dual national since the law of 2009 and the recovery of nationality by 13,000 Brazilians of Luxembourgish descent |
| Languages | Luxembourgish the main language of about 55%, Portuguese of about 16%, French of about 12%, German 3%, Italian 3%, English 2% (census of 2011); the trilingual schooling — reading in German, the secondary in French; French the language of 98% of the working day of the shops |
| Religion | Roman Catholic about 60% by the surveys, with the pilgrimage of the Octave to Our Lady the Consoler of the Afflicted since 1666 and the hopping procession; Protestant, Orthodox and the churches of the Portuguese; Muslim about 2%; no religion about a quarter; the state's pay to the clergy ended by the convention of 2015 and the religion classes replaced by the "values" course of 2017 |
| Human Development Index | 0.922 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 25th of 193 |
| The cross-border workers | About 230,000 frontaliers a day (2025) — about 125,000 from France, 50,000 from Belgium, 50,000 from Germany — nearly half of the country's 500,000 jobs; the trains and the motorways full at 8 a.m.; the fight over their family allowances and the home-office days |
| Sport | Cycling — four winners of the Tour de France, François Faber of 1909 as the first foreigner, Nicolas Frantz of 1927 and 1928, Charly Gaul the "Angel of the Mountains" of 1958 and Andy Schleck of 2010, and Fränk Schleck beside him; Josy Barthel's gold in the 1,500 m at Helsinki in 1952, the only Olympic gold, run in with a substitute anthem because the band had none; the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg; the football of the Roude Léiw and the 2024 playoff; Gilles Muller in tennis; the Winter Olympics of 2026 with two alpine skiers |
| Luxembourgers abroad | About 55,000 — 33,000 of them in France, the rest in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland; the emigrants of the 1800s to the American Midwest, Wisconsin and Iowa, and to Brazil; the recovery of nationality since 2009 by their descendants |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the Constitution of 2023 — the Grand Duke as head of state, the sovereignty resting in the nation, the government of a prime minister responsible to the Chamber of Deputies of 60; the Council of State of 21 as the second reading; the Constitutional Court of 1997 |
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| Grand Duke | Guillaume V, since 3 October 2025 — the seventh of the House of Nassau-Weilburg, born 11 November 1981 at Luxembourg City, a colonel of the army and a Durham and Angers graduate; lieutenant-representative of his father from 8 October 2024; sworn before the Chamber on the day of Henri's abdication at the palace; married to Grand Duchess Stéphanie, born Countess de Lannoy of Belgium, 20 October 2012; the heir Prince Charles, born 10 May 2020, and Prince François, born 2023 |
| The abdication | Henri, Grand Duke from 7 October 2000, announced on 23 June 2024 that his son would take the duties and on 24 December 2024 that he would abdicate; the signing of 3 October 2025 at the palace and the oath in the Chamber, his 25 years ended at 70 as his father Jean had abdicated in 2000 and his grandmother Charlotte in 1964; his refusal in December 2008 to sign the euthanasia law the crisis that stripped the crown of its assent to the laws in 2009 |
| Prime Minister | Luc Frieden (Christian Social People's Party — CSV), since 17 November 2023 — born 16 September 1963 at Esch-sur-Alzette, a lawyer of Cambridge and Harvard, the justice minister of 1998–2009 and finance minister of 2009–13 under Juncker, the chairman of Deutsche Bank Luxembourg, the Eurochambres president; formed after the election of 8 October 2023 in five weeks with the Democratic Party; Xavier Bettel, prime minister of 2013–23, his deputy and foreign minister |
| The government | The CSV–DP coalition — 15 ministers, 35 of 60 seats: Gilles Roth at finance, Yuriko Backes at defense and mobility, Léon Gloden at home affairs, Claude Meisch at education, Lex Delles at the economy, Martine Deprez at health and social security, Elisabeth Margue at justice; Georges Mischo resigned as labor and sports minister on 11 December 2025 amid the controversy over his dealings with the unions, Marc Spautz taking labor and Martine Hansen sports; the opposition the Socialists, the Greens, the ADR, the Pirates and the Left |
| The 2023 election | Held 8 October 2023 for the 60 seats: CSV 21, up 2; DP 14, up 2; LSAP 11, up 1; ADR 5, up 1; Greens 4, down 5; Pirates 3, up 1; the Left 2; turnout above 90% with the vote compulsory; housing, the cost of living and the security of the capital the issues; the Bettel coalition of 2013–23 of liberals, socialists and greens out; Claude Wiseler (CSV) the Speaker |
| Parliament | The Chamber of Deputies — Chambre des Députés — 60 members elected for five years by proportional representation in four constituencies of 23, 21, 9 and 7 seats, each voter with as many votes as seats and free to spread them across lists; voting compulsory for citizens of 18 to 75; the Council of State of 21 named by the Grand Duke as the second chamber in effect |
| The next election | The Chamber by October 2028; the communal elections in June 2029; the European Parliament's 6 seats in 2029 |
| The pension fight | The pension reform — the first in 14 years, the "Schwätz mat!" consultation of 2024–25, the prime minister's announcement of a longer working life in his state-of-the-nation address of 2025 — met by the demonstration of 28 June 2025 of more than 25,000 called by the OGBL and LCGB unions together, the largest in decades; the talks with the unions and the employers ended without agreement on 3 September 2025 and the government's unilateral measures announced the same day, its plan to open collective agreements to other signatories dropped, the Sunday retail shift raised from 4 to 8 hours; the law, bill 8514, passed by the Chamber in December 2025 and in force 1 January 2026 — early retirement at 60 pushed back one month in 2026 to eight months by 2030, the contribution rates and the ceiling raised, the early pension at 57 kept; "the end of the tripartite model," the unions said, calling the law ill-considered and imposed; "solidarity between the generations," the prime minister said, "beyond the next elections" |
| Defense | The Luxembourg Army of about 1,000 volunteers, the smallest in NATO, with no navy and no air force of its own; defense spending raised to 2% of GDP in 2025 from 0.6% a decade before, toward the 3.5% pledged at The Hague in 2025; the A400M shared with Belgium; NATO's AWACS fleet registered in Luxembourg; the NATO Support and Procurement Agency at Capellen; the satellites of GovSat; conscription abolished 1967 |
| Legal system | Civil law on the French Napoleonic base; the death penalty abolished 1979; euthanasia legal since 2009; same-sex marriage since 1 January 2015; the growing of four cannabis plants at home legal since 21 July 2023, the first in the EU; the Constitutional Court |
| Local government | 100 communes with elected councils and mayors, the elections of 11 June 2023 open to all residents; Lydie Polfer (DP) the mayor of the capital since 2013 and of 1982–99; the communes of the Bock, the Kirchberg and the Grund |
| European Union | A founding member of the Coal and Steel Community of 1952, the seat of its High Authority, and of the Rome treaties of 1957; the home of the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank, the European Stability Mechanism, Eurostat and the Parliament's secretariat; three presidents of the Commission — Gaston Thorn (1981–85), Jacques Santer (1995–99) and Jean-Claude Juncker (2014–19); the Werner plan of 1970 for the single currency; the Schengen agreement signed on the Moselle on 14 June 1985; the eurozone from the first day |
| NATO | A founding member of 4 April 1949, the neutrality of 1867 given up in 1948; the summit of the Kirchberg's NATO parliamentary assembly; the 2% of 2025 |
| United Nations | A founding member of 24 October 1945; a Security Council seat in 2013–14; Palestine recognized on 22 September 2025 at the UN summit |
| Other memberships | The Benelux union of 1 January 1948 and of 1958, with Belgium and the Netherlands; the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union of 1921; the OECD, the Council of Europe (1949), the WTO, the OSCE, the Francophonie, the Greater Region of the Saar, Lorraine, Wallonia and the two Rhinelands |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$101 billion (2025, IMF) |
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| GDP per capita | About US$148,000 (2025) — the highest of any country in the IMF's tables, swollen by the cross-border workers who make the output and are not counted in the population; Monaco and Liechtenstein higher by the World Bank's, outside them |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$153,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 1% a year (2024–25) after the fall of 2023, about 2% expected in 2026; inflation about 2% with the wages indexed automatically to prices; unemployment about 6% |
| Economy by sector | Services about 88%, industry about 11%, agriculture under 1% |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| The financial center | The second-largest investment fund center in the world after the United States — about €6 trillion under administration in the UCITS funds sold across Europe and Asia; about 120 banks from 25 countries; the Luxembourg Stock Exchange of 1928 that listed the first Eurobond in 1963 and the first green bond exchange in 2016; the private banking, the insurance, the fintech of PayPal; the LuxLeaks of 5 November 2014 that showed the tax rulings of 340 companies, the Commission's cases on Amazon and Fiat, the state's defense of its law |
| Steel | ARBED of 1911, the mills of the Minett that made the country, the blast furnaces of Belval stilled in 1997 and the university built among them; ArcelorMittal, the largest steel company outside China, headquartered at Luxembourg City since the merger of 2006; the electric furnaces of Differdange and Belval |
| Satellites, media and the air | SES of 1985, the Astra satellites from Betzdorf, the largest satellite operator in the world by revenue; RTL Group, born as Radio Luxembourg in 1931, the broadcaster of Europe; Cargolux of 1970, the largest all-cargo airline of Europe; the space resources law of 20 July 2017, the first in Europe, giving title to what is mined in space, and the European Space Agency's space resources center; GovSat |
| Industry | Goodyear at Colmar-Berg since 1951; DuPont at Contern; Guardian glass; Ceratizit; Ferrero; the Amazon European headquarters since 2004; the Google data center; the Villeroy & Boch of Septfontaines 1767–2010; the Bofferding and Diekirch breweries |
| Energy | Imported almost entirely — the electricity from Germany, France and Belgium, the gas by pipeline; the Vianden pumped-storage plant of 1,296 MW that stores Germany's power; the country's greatest energy user per head with its transit fuel sales, "tank tourism," at the border pumps; no nuclear plant, Cattenom across the line; the wind and solar rising |
| Agriculture | The wine of the Moselle — 1,300 hectares of Riesling, Elbling, Rivaner, Auxerrois and Pinot for the Crémant since the appellation of 1935; the dairy and beef of the Ardennes; the grain; the roses gone |
| Housing | The most expensive homes in the EU by the head — about €10,000 per m² in the capital at the peak of 2022, the prices down by a sixth in 2023–24 and rising again; the shortage the first issue of the elections; the rent of a flat the frontalier's reason to commute |
| Public finances | Public debt about 27% of GDP, among the lowest in the EU, rated AAA by all three agencies; the deficit about 1%; the minimum wage the highest in the EU, about €2,700 a month gross for the unskilled (2025); the in-work poverty rate the eurozone's highest at about 13%, the unions say |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an OECD founding member |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Luxembourg Airport at Findel, 6 km from the city — about 5 million passengers (2024), the tram to its door since 2024; the cargo hub of Cargolux, among the busiest freight airports of Europe; the ELLX code |
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| Airlines | Luxair of 1962, the flag carrier, to 90 destinations; Cargolux, the Boeing 747 freighters, the largest all-cargo airline of Europe |
| Free public transport | All buses, trains and trams free for everyone since 29 February 2020 — the first country in the world, the second class of the trains and the whole of the buses, first class the exception; the 140,000 daily commuters of the roads the reason |
| Railways | 275 km (171 mi) of standard gauge, electrified — the CFL of 1946; the TGV to Paris in 2 hours 10 minutes since 2007; the lines to Brussels, Trier and Koblenz, Metz and Strasbourg; the new line to Bettembourg; the tram of Luxembourg City since 10 December 2017, from Findel across the Kirchberg and the Red Bridge to the station and the Cloche d'Or |
| Roads | About 2,900 km (1,800 mi); the motorways A1 to Trier, A3 to Metz, A4 to Esch, A6 to Arlon and Brussels, A7 north to Ettelbruck, A13 along the south; the jams of the frontaliers; the fuel of the border pumps |
| Main port | Mertert on the Moselle, the river port of 1966 for the steel, the grain and the fuel, on the canalized river to Koblenz and the Rhine |
History in dates
| 963 | Siegfried acquires the Lucilinburhuc, 12 April — the castle on the Bock |
|---|---|
| 1308 | Henry VII elected King of the Romans; Emperor 1312 — the House of Luxembourg on the imperial throne |
| 1354 | The county made a duchy by Charles IV |
| 1443 | Philip the Good of Burgundy takes the duchy — the Low Countries |
| 1684 | Vauban takes the fortress for Louis XIV; the walls of the Gibraltar of the North |
| 1795 | Annexed by France after the siege — the Forêts department |
| 1815 | The Congress of Vienna — a grand duchy for the Dutch king, 9 June |
| 1839 | The Treaty of London, 19 April — the western half to Belgium, the borders of today |
| 1842 | The German Zollverein |
| 1867 | The Luxembourg Crisis; the Treaty of London, 11 May — neutrality, the fortress razed |
| 1868 | The Constitution, 17 October |
| 1890 | Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg — the own dynasty, 23 November |
| 1914 | The German occupation, 2 August |
| 1919 | Charlotte grand duchess, 15 January; the referendum for her and against France, 28 September; women vote |
| 1921 | The economic union with Belgium |
| 1940 | The invasion, 10 May; Charlotte to London |
| 1942 | The general strike against conscription, 31 August; annexed |
| 1944 | Liberated, 10 September; the Battle of the Bulge from 16 December |
| 1945 | The United Nations, a founder |
| 1948 | Neutrality dropped; the Benelux, 1 January |
| 1949 | NATO, a founder, 4 April |
| 1952 | The Coal and Steel Community seated at Luxembourg; Barthel's gold |
| 1964 | Jean grand duke, 12 November |
| 1985 | Schengen, 14 June |
| 2000 | Henri grand duke, 7 October |
| 2008 | The euthanasia crisis, December |
| 2013 | Bettel prime minister, 4 December — Juncker's 18 years end |
| 2014 | LuxLeaks, 5 November; Juncker the Commission president |
| 2020 | Free public transport, 29 February |
| 2023 | The new Constitution, 1 July; the election, 8 October; Frieden, 17 November |
| 2025 | The demonstration, 28 June; Palestine recognized, 22 September; Guillaume V, 3 October; the pension law, December |
| 2026 | The reform in force, 1 January; the state of the nation, 19 May |
Records & firsts
| The highest GDP per capita of any country | About US$148,000 |
|---|---|
| The only grand duchy in the world | Since 1815 |
| The first country with free public transport | 29 February 2020 |
| The second-largest fund center in the world | After the United States |
| The highest share of foreign residents in the EU | 46.6% |
| Three presidents of the European Commission | Thorn, Santer, Juncker |
| The birthplace of Schengen | A boat on the Moselle, 1985 |
| The longest-serving head of government in the EU | Juncker, 1995–2013 |
| Four winners of the Tour de France | Faber, Frantz, Gaul, Schleck |
| An Olympic gold to the wrong anthem | Barthel, 1952 |
| The first EU leader married to a man in office | Bettel, 2015 |
| The largest satellite operator | SES |
| The first space resources law in Europe | 2017 |
| A founder of the UN, NATO, Benelux, the ECSC, the EEC and the euro | Every one |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Luxembourg?
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg — Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg in Luxembourgish, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg in French, Großherzogtum Luxemburg in German — the world's only grand duchy, made one by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 for the Dutch king, cut to its present borders by the Treaty of London of 19 April 1839, declared neutral by the second Treaty of London of 11 May 1867 and given its own dynasty in 1890. The name is the castle's: Lucilinburhuc, the "little fortress" on the Bock rock that Count Siegfried acquired in 963.
What is the capital of Luxembourg?
Luxembourg City — Lëtzebuerg, Luxembourg-Ville — on the rock above the gorges of the Alzette and the Pétrusse in the south of the country, the "Gibraltar of the North" of the fortress dismantled in 1867 and a World Heritage site since 1994; about 140,000 people, seven in ten of them foreign nationals, one in five of the country's residents. It is a capital of the European Union beside Brussels and Strasbourg — the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank, the European Stability Mechanism and Eurostat sit on its Kirchberg plateau. Esch-sur-Alzette, the steel city of the south, is the second town.
How big is Luxembourg, and how many people live there?
About 2,586 km² (998 sq mi) — smaller than Rhode Island, about the size of Goa, 82 km from north to south and 57 from east to west, the seventh-smallest country of Europe — landlocked between Belgium, Germany and France. The census of 2021 counted 643,941 people; STATEC counted 690,959 on 1 January 2026, up 1.3 percent in a year on immigration, of 180 nationalities, 46.6 percent of them foreign nationals — the Portuguese first at 12.8 percent of the whole, then the French and the Italians — with some 230,000 more crossing the borders each day from France, Belgium and Germany to work.
What are the highest and lowest points of Luxembourg?
Kneiff, 560 m (1,837 ft), a hill of the Ardennes plateau in the far north near Troisvierges, a meter above the Buurgplaatz that the older books give; and the Moselle at Wasserbillig, 133 m (436 ft), where the Sûre joins the river of the German border. The north is the Oesling, the Ardennes of forests and gorges; the south the Gutland, the rolling farmland of the Alzette and the vineyards of the Moselle, with the Red Lands of the iron ore along the French line.
What currency does Luxembourg use?
The euro (ISO code EUR, €), from the launch of 1 January 1999 and the notes of 2002, replacing the Luxembourg franc that had been at par with the Belgian franc since the economic union of 1921 — Luxembourg a founding member of the eurozone. Clocks keep Central European Time, UTC+1, with summer time; Luxembourg drives on the right; all public transport in the country has been free since 29 February 2020.
Who governs Luxembourg?
Grand Duke Guillaume V, the head of state since 3 October 2025, when his father Henri abdicated after 25 years on the throne, the seventh grand duke of the House of Nassau-Weilburg — a constitutional monarch who promulgates the laws and names the government; and Prime Minister Luc Frieden of the Christian Social People's Party, head of government since 17 November 2023, leading a coalition with the liberal Democratic Party of Xavier Bettel, his predecessor and deputy, on 35 of the 60 seats of the Chamber of Deputies elected on 8 October 2023. The government's pension reform, passed in December 2025 after the largest demonstration in decades, took effect on 1 January 2026; the next election is due in October 2028.
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