It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 2016 as a new layer at the fifth level of the league system, at that time named Belgian Third Amateur Division.
From the 2020–21 season on it was renamed to Belgian Division 3, due to the negative connotation of the word amateur.
The division consists of four separate leagues with 16 teams each, two of these leagues consist of teams playing with a license from the Voetbalfederatie Vlaanderen (VFV, the Dutch-speaking wing of the RBFA) and two with teams with a license from the Association des Clubs Francophones de Football (ACFF, the French-speaking wing of the RBFA).
In each of the four separate leagues, the season is a regular round-robin tournament with 16 teams.
The teams finishing in second place in each Flemish-speaking league and the three period winners (the season is divided into three periods) of these leagues will playoff for two extra promotion spots.