Demographics of Belgium

Population

• One birth every 4 minutes
• One death every 5 minutes
• One net migrant every 12 minutes
• Net gain of one person every 9 minutes

Fertility

Life expectancy

Statistics by province

Statistics by region

Historical data

Age structure

Density

Vital statistics

• 1845-1847 – Potato blight
• 1849, 1855, 1866 – Cholera outbreaks
• 1914-1918 – World War I
• 1940-1945 – World War II

Structure of the population

Immigration

Belgium migration data

Country of origin	2013	2015	2017	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Total population	11,099,554	11,209,044	11,322,088	11,431,406	11,492,641	11,521,238	11,584,008	11,697,597	11,763,650
Belgium Employment and income Unemployment, youth ages 15–24; total: 15.8%. Education Literacy; Definition: age 15 and over can read and write School life expectancy ; total: 20 years Origin groups Belgium does not collect data on ethnicity or race, but does collect data on the country of origin of citizens. The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Italian Belgians, with more than 450,000 people, which is well over 4% of Belgium's total population. The Moroccan Belgians are the third-largest group, and the largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering 340,359. According to Michèle Tribalat in the beginning of 2020, people of foreign background and their descendants were estimated to have formed 32.1% of the total population. According to Statbel, 65.5% of the Belgian population was Belgian with a Belgian background in 2024. The Belgian background by age group was 51.8% among those under 18, 62.1% among 18-64-year-olds and 85.5% among those aged 65 and over. Of these 'New Belgians', 55.1% are of non-Belgian European ancestry and 44.9% are from non-Western countries. The rest consists mostly of French-speaking people from Brussels, Turks, Kurds, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spaniards, Greeks, Bosniaks, Algerians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Poles, Indians, and Guineans. Approximately 30,000 Roma live in Belgium. The exact number of French-speakers in Brussels is hard to determine, but it is estimated that 85% of the people living in Brussels use French and 10% use Dutch in their households, as the sole language or secondary language, while Arabic is also largely spoken. See the Brussels article for more details. In the table are the top 30 countries by origin of the population of Belgium in 2020 Country Number % of population of foreign origin % of total population Morocco Naturalisation Foreign nationals can only apply for Belgian nationality after 5 years of legal residence in Belgium. The requirements for Belgium nationality are You have been legally resident in Belgium for at least 5 years, You have a right to remain indefinitely, You are integrated in Belgium, for example you have a certificate of integration, You speak and write 1 of the 3 national languages, and You have already worked at least 468 days. Since the year 2000 there has been 910,067 naturalised persons. Continent Naturalised Persons Percentage of Total Europe 344,923 37.9% Asia 133,183 14.6% Africa 362,308 39.8% America 30,783 3.4% Oceania 454 0.05% Others 38,416 4.2% Total 910,067 100% Rank Country Number of Naturalised Persons 1 Morocco Languages Belgium's three official languages are Dutch, spoken by about 60% of the population, French, spoken by about 40%, and German, spoken by less than 1%. The vast majority of Belgium's population, 99%, is literate as defined by the Belgian government, i.e. capable of reading and writing in an official language by the time a citizen has reached the age of 15. English is the official language of the European Commission, 10% of the job market in Brussels. Religion According to the European Social Survey in 2023, people who did not belong to a religion comprised 59% of the Belgian population. The share of Christians was 34%, with Catholicism being the largest denomination at 31% of the population. Protestants and other Christians comprised 2% and Orthodox Christians comprised 1%. Islam is the second largest religion with 6% of the population being Muslim. As of 2012, 58% of Belgians identify as Catholic. Other Christians comprise 7% of the population. Muslims comprise 5%. 27% of Belgians are agnostics, atheists or otherwise irreligious.