Leuven - Bevolkingsdichtheid per statistische sector - 2013Louvain - Densité de population par secteur statistique - 2013Leuven - Population density per statistical sector - 2013Source: http://www.leuven.be/bestuur/leuven-in-cijfers/

Leuven - Bevolkingsdichtheid per deelgemeente - 2013Louvain - Densité de population par section de commune - 2013Leuven - Population density per sub-municipality - 2013Source: http://www.leuven.be/bestuur/leuven-in-cijfers/

In 2022, in terms of population, the biggest cities or municipalities in Belgium were Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, and Brussels. The Flemish cities of Antwerp and Ghent were the most populated in Belgium in 2022. From a regional perspective, out of the 6.8 million people living in Flanders, around 800,000 people lived in one of these two cities. However, the region of Wallonia also had large cities such as Charleroi and Liège. For instance, both cities registered around 200,000 inhabitants each. To put all these numbers into perspective, Belgium’s population amounted to 11.6 million in 2022.

Belgium’s capital city: Brussels

Surprisingly, the Belgian capital, Brussels, was not on top of the list. The reason for this is in the way the city’s population is measured. Brussels is made of 19 municipalities. In this ranking, for instance, only three of them are listed: Brussels City, Schaerbeek, and Anderlecht. These 19 municipalities form the heart of the agglomeration of Brussels which counts 36 municipalities in total and is also known as “le Grand Bruxelles”. In 2019, over a million people were living in this Brussels-Capital Region. The agglomeration of Brussels is the most populated in the country, it is bigger than the agglomeration of Antwerp. Yet in terms of municipalities, Antwerp was the most populated in Belgium in 2020.

Belgium’s five big agglomerations

Belgium faced a population growth of 0.58 percent in 2020. The country counts five big agglomerations: Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Ghent, and Liège. Although the notion of agglomeration is very fluid and disputed, each of these five agglomerations represents a significant part of the population. For some, agglomerations are defined by the continuity of constructions. For others, they are defined by the sense of an urban entity shared by a living community. Nonetheless, the definition of an agglomeration in Belgium corresponds to the European rules. These rules fix the technical specifications regarding the population and housing census. An agglomeration is, therefore, a group of municipalities which includes a continuously built-up zone with no cut of more than 200 meters between two constructions.

Opinions and attitudes of the Belgian population towards politics in general in 1995. Individualism / anomie / voting behaviour / political clientalism / political issues / memberships political parties / ideological trends / conventional and unconventional political participation / political party preference / political cleavages: respondent's position on scales/ perception of party's position on scales / materialism - post-materialism / economic and cultural conservatism / abortion and euthanasia / emancipation of women / authoritarianism / satisfaction with democracy / political efficacy / attention to election campaigns / feelings about politics / political corruption / women and politics / ethnocentrism / political knowledge / group affiliations / life satisfaction / environment / trust in institutions Background variables: basic characteristics/ household characteristics/ occupation/employment/ income/capital assets/ education/ social class/ politics/ religion. Fieldwork dates: Panel Survey: October 1995 / Cross-sectional Survey: May 1996 / last interviews: February 1997.

The increase in population in the shock node is deducted from this. The population loss in the rest of the network is larger when the shock is applied to a node with a higher centrality.