To characterize the solar radiation in the Benelux countries, a dataset of daily global horizontal solar radiation resulting from both on-site observations time series and long-term satellite-derived data has been generated and analysed at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI). The developed procedures take advantage of a recently released 23 years long (1983-2005) surface incoming solar radiation (SIS) climate data records derived from the first generation of Meteosat satellites imageries and the radiometric measurements networks operated by the Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI) and RMI, respectively. In addition to the computation of various statistics to quantify the amount and the variability of the solar resources in the Benelux, solar radiation climate zones within the Benelux were defined and the recent trend in solar radiation was characterized. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.