Leuven, Flemish Brabant Province, The Flemish Region, Belgium

Economy | Student population | Transport | Colleges

🇧🇪 Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 km (16 miles) east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic city and the former neighbouring municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, a part of Korbeek-Lo, Wilsele and Wijgmaal. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium.

KU Leuven, Belgium's largest university, has its flagship campus in Leuven, which has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. The city is home of the headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest beer brewer and sixth-largest fast-moving consumer goods company.

The city itself is made up out of the centre of Leuven, Kessel-Lo, Heverlee, Wilsele and Wijgmaal.

Economy Given the presence of the KU Leuven, Europe's most innovative university according to Reuters, much of the local economy is concentrated on spin-offs from academic research. In addition, the Leuven-based research centre, IMEC, is a research centre in the field of nano-electronics and digital technologies. As a result, dozens of companies in high technological fields such as biotech, robotics, additive manufacturing and IT, are located near these research institutes on the Arenberg Science Park and Haasrode Research-Park. Quite a few international companies such as Siemens, Huawei, Nitto Denko, JSR Corporation or Commscope have important, often research oriented branches, in Leuven. The academic hospital UZ Leuven, first in Europe regarding the number of clinical tests per capita and approval rates for clinical trials, UZ Leuven is another advanced research institute. It is one of Europe's largest academic hospitals. As a result, large numbers of private service providers are active in the medical, financial and legal fields.

Because it is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant, many governmental institutions are located in Leuven, as well as the regional headquarters of transport corporations such as De Lijn. As one of Flanders Art-Cities, with a large range of cafés, restaurants, cultural institutions and shopping neighbourhoods, Leuven also attracts a growing number of tourists.

Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.

Student population Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).

Transport Within the city and its immediate surroundings, most distances can be covered on foot or with a bicycle. Several streets are off-limits to vehicle traffic and, within the city centre, road speed regulations prescribe 30 km/h (19 mph) as the maximum speed limit, making it a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly city. There are also a few car parking lots.

There are numerous buses, primarily operated by the public transport company De Lijn, that connect the city with the region while providing travel options within the city centre. The so-called Ringbus follows the ring road of the city. Buses 616, 652 and 651 connect Leuven with Brussels Airport.

Leuven railway station is located on the NMBS railway lines 35 (Leuven–Aarschot–Hasselt), 36 (Brussels–Liège), 36N (Schaerbeek–Leuven), 53 (Schellebelle–Leuven), and 139 (Leuven–Ottignies). In Bierbeek, south-east of Leuven, lies the beginning of HSL 2, the high-speed railway towards Liège.

The European route E40 passes Leuven in the south, the European route E314 connects Leuven with the city of Aachen.

Colleges The Old University of Leuven used to have 40 constituent colleges and 4 pedagogies, some of which are still being used by KU Leuven. The most notable ones are: • Holy Ghost College, founded in 1442, currently a residence for theology students and priests at KU Leuven. • Collegium Trilingue, which promoted the teaching of Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It was founded in 1517 by the humanist Hieronymus Busleyden under impulse of Desiderius Erasmus and served as a model for France's Collège de France. • Pope's College, a college for theology students of the Old University of Leuven founded by Pope Adrian VI in 1523. • St Anthony's College, founded in 1607, was located on the Pater Damiaanplein and has been a centre of Irish learning on the European Continent since the early 17th century. The Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe is now located on the premises.

Europe/Brussels/Provincie_Vlaams-Brabant 
<b>Europe/Brussels/Provincie_Vlaams-Brabant</b>
Image: Adobe Stock roberaten #71905540

Leuven was ranked #930 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Leuven has a population of over 100,291 people. Leuven also forms the centre of the wider Flemish Brabant Province which has a population of over 1,146,175 people. Leuven is ranked #311 for startups with a score of 0.866.

To set up a UBI Lab for Leuven see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Leuven has links with:

🇳🇱 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands 🇷🇴 Cristian, Romania 🇵🇱 Kraków, Poland 🇩🇪 Lüdenscheid, Germany 🇮🇳 New Delhi, India 🇪🇸 Ocaña, Spain 🇧🇪 Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium 🇫🇷 Rennes, France 🇿🇦 Stellenbosch, South Africa 🇹🇼 Tainan, Taiwan 🇨🇳 Wuxi, China
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | Nomad | StartupBlink

Antipodal to Leuven is: -175.298,-50.879

Locations Near: Leuven 4.70156,50.8786

🇧🇪 Flemish Brabant 4.591,50.873 d: 7.8  

🇧🇪 Wavre 4.611,50.717 d: 19.1  

🇧🇪 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre 4.467,50.833 d: 17.2  

🇧🇪 Mechelen 4.467,51.017 d: 22.5  

🇧🇪 Vilvoorde 4.417,50.933 d: 20.9  

🇧🇪 Schaarbeek 4.383,50.867 d: 22.4  

🇧🇪 Brussels 4.371,50.836 d: 23.7  

🇧🇪 Schaerbeek 4.368,50.859 d: 23.5  

🇧🇪 Ixelles-Elsene 4.368,50.834 d: 23.9  

🇧🇪 Ixelles 4.367,50.833 d: 24  

Antipodal to: Leuven -175.298,-50.879

🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16707.9  

🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 15924.5  

🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 15883.4  

🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 15664.3  

🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 11918.9  

🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 11842.2  

🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 11830  

🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 11824.7  

🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 11824.1  

🇺🇸 Honolulu -157.85,21.3 d: 11809  

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