Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy in Western Europe, landlocked between Belgium, Germany and France, with Luxembourg City as its capital and most populous center. The County of Luxembourg was founded in 963 when Siegfried acquired its castle, and the territory reached a golden age when Henry VII became Holy Roman Emperor in 1312, before falling under Habsburg rule from 1444 to 1794 and later being annexed by France as the departement des forets; after Napoleon's defeat, the 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the Grand Duchy but partitioned it three times, sharply reducing its size. Luxembourg gained full independence in 1890, when its personal union with the Dutch monarchy ended, and it remains the world's only surviving sovereign grand duchy, currently led by Grand Duke Guillaume V with Luc Frieden as prime minister. At 2,586.4 square kilometers, Europe's seventh smallest country, Luxembourg had a population of about 693,916 as of June 2026 and ranks first in the world by GDP per capita at purchasing power parity, hosting major institutions of the European Union including the Court of Justice of the European Union.