116 Residents in Area the Size of Belgium

Academic website The Conversation has a report on the Australian local government councils.

“The 565 councils in Australia range greatly in size. The largest, Brisbane City Council in Queensland, has an annual operating budget of A$2.9 billion and serves a community of just over a million people. It covers an area of 133,809 hectares.

The smallest, Sandstone Shire Council in Western Australia, comprises a population of 116 and covers a land area of 3,266,650 ha. This is comparable to the size of Belgium. It had an annual operating budget in 2014 of $3.4 million.”

 

Hainan, China’s island province is the size of Belgium

Donald Trump’s comments about China’s island-building in the South China Sea attracted some analysis by the US-based fact-checking site Politifact. The article mentions the province of Hainan.

“Hainan Island, which is roughly the size of Belgium, is not one of the contested territories.”

Our Ruling

Hainan at 12,822 square miles is close to the size of Belgium (11,787) but a more accurate measure would be Moldova at 13,068 square miles.

We rate Politifact’s claim to be “Mostly True”.