Belgium's largest cities in terms of population in 2025 were situated in Flanders. Approximately ******* people lived in Antwerpen, making it the biggest city in Belgium. This city was followed by Gent with ******* inhabitants in 2025. However, the third and fourth city with the most inhabitants were in the Belgian region of Wallonia. Indeed, Charleroi counted ******* inhabitants, and Bruxelles, ******* inhabitants.

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.

Actual value and historical data chart for Belgium Population In Largest City

Belgium BE: Population in Largest City data was reported at 2,132,178.000 Person in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 2,121,992.000 Person for 2023. Belgium BE: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 1,703,259.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2024, with 65 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2,132,178.000 Person in 2024 and a record low of 1,484,676.000 Person in 1960. Belgium BE: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Belgium – Table BE.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.;United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.;;

Belgium BE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 18.381 % in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 18.334 % for 2023. Belgium BE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 17.684 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2024, with 65 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 18.435 % in 2021 and a record low of 17.224 % in 1967. Belgium BE: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Belgium – Table BE.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.;United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.;Weighted average;

Want to live somewhere quiet? Then the Brussels-Capital Region maybe would not be the place for you. In a country where the population density was highly depended on the region, the Brussels-Capital Region far exceeded the others in terms of residents per square kilometer. Whereas in Brussels over 7,500 people lived per a square kilometer, in the Walloon Region this was only 276. In total, roughly 1.22 million inhabitants lived in the Brussels-Capital Region in 2022.

 Flemish Region has the highest number of inhabitants  

Although the Brussels-Capital Region had the highest population density, it was by no means Belgium’s region with the largest number of inhabitants. On the contrary: both the Flemish and the Walloon Regions had more inhabitants than the Brussels Region. In total, just over ten percent of Belgium’s population lived in Brussels, the rest was divided among Flanders (58 percent) and Wallonia (32 percent).

 Comparison to the other Benelux countries   

Belgium’s population density amounted to 375 inhabitants per square kilometer in 2021. This was significantly lower than the population density in neighboring country the Netherlands, where on average 519 inhabitants lived on a square kilometer. It was however higher than Luxembourg’s population density, which amounted to about 245 inhabitants per square kilometer. This was the lowest population density of all three Benelux countries.

Where can you find the most office space in Belgium? According to calculations based on the number of square meters, most office buildings were in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent. There were large differences in the market size between the three cities, however. Mechelen and Liège followed in fourth and fifth place with ******* square meters of office space, whereas Ypres was ranked the lowest of the ** cities in this ranking.

This statistic provides information on the origin of the population of the City of Brussels.These statistics on origin are based on the following characteristics: the person's current nationality and first registered nationality, as well as the parents' first registered nationality. These characteristics are available in the National Register of Natural Persons (RNPP) managed by the SPF Intérieur. The starting point for determining origin is current nationality. If it is not Belgian, the person falls into the ‘non-Belgian’ category.If the current nationality is Belgian, the first nationality registered is looked at secondarily. If it is non-Belgian, the person falls into the ‘Belgian of foreign origin’ category. If the current nationality and the first registered nationality are Belgian, then the first registered nationality of the parents is examined. If one or both parents have a non-Belgian first registered nationality, then the person belongs to the ‘Belgian of foreign origin’ category.Finally, people who do not belong to any of the above categories are classified in the ‘Belgian of Belgian origin’ category.Nationality is finally subdivided into four main categories: Belgian; Neighbouring country, i.e. Germany, France, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom; EU27, excluding Belgium and neighbouring countries; Non-EU27.

This is the dataset for the article 'Projecting the World. The Mediated Geography of the Projection Lantern in Belgium c.1900-c.1920' with Thomas Smits. The dataset contains announcements and reviews of lantern lectures published in Belgian newspapers. The studied newspapers provide an accurate overview of the Belgian newspaper landscape in three sample periods (1902-1904, 1914-1918, and 1922-1924). We considered the different ideological backgrounds (Catholic, liberal, and socialist) and the language of the publication (French and Dutch) and focussed on the two largest cities of Belgium at that time: Antwerp and Brussels. Using different search strings, we identified 8,230 announcements and reviews for lantern lectures, published in 45 different newspaper titles. We included all types of performances (travel, economic, religious, etc). Next to the geographic references, we also recorded: the newspaper and its production date, the date of the performance, the speaker and their profession, the location of the performance, and, when available, information on which images were shown and the reaction of the audience. Taking into account that some lectures were announced and discussed multiple times, our final dataset consists of 5,673 unique lectures of which 2,570 have a spatial reference (45%). We identified three levels of spatial references: continent, country, and city. If the announcements mentioned a place in one of the last two levels (country or city), we completed the parent levels. For instance, we filled in Europe and France for lectures that mentioned Paris. We recorded place names as they were mentioned in the newspapers but also normalized the spatial references to modern-day cities and countries (see methodology). This is an abbreviated version of the dataset collected for my doctoral dissertation 'From 'Magic' to 'the Masses' Mapping the Lantern Lecture Circuit in Antwerp and Brussels, c.1900-c.1920' (University of Antwerp). You can e-mail me for the larger dataset. In the article, we analysed the dataset using Jupyter Notebooks which can be found in the GitHub repository: https://github.com/tpsmi/projectingtheworld

A comparative table of everyday places and facilities in English, French, German, Dutch and Luxembourgish, representing the main languages of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

How many coworking spaces are there in Belgium? According to calculations, there were close to *** coworking centers in the country in 2019. Together, these made up less than *** percent of the total office market in the country. In Brussels, however, the share of flexible workspaces made up more than ** percent of all office take-up, making the Belgian capital one of Europe’s most common cities for coworking.

Brussels leads the charge for office space in Belgium…

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the city with the highest amount of office space in Belgium was Brussels. There were large differences, however, between Brussels and other Belgian cities. It was forecast that Antwerp, for example, would have roughly *** million square meters of office space in 2018, whereas Brussels would have around **** million. Due to the capital’s central location and the presence of European institutions, prime office rents in Brussels were also significantly higher than those found in other Belgian cities.

… but not when it comes to constructing new office space.

One reason why coworking in Brussels might be popular, could be due to construction issues in the Belgian capital. In 2018, there were just ** building permits for newly constructed commercial real estate in the Brussels-Capital Region (which includes the city of Brussels plus its surrounding villages). This same value reached over ***** in the northern, Belgian Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. The vacancy rate of offices in Brussels also reached its lowest value in 2018.

Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Sightseeing In Cities: Belgium data was reported at 83.600 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 80.300 % for 2014. Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Sightseeing In Cities: Belgium data is updated yearly, averaging 84.600 % from Dec 2003 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 % in 2013 and a record low of 34.300 % in 2003. Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Sightseeing In Cities: Belgium data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Tourism Malaysia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Malaysia – Table MY.Q009: Tourist Arrivals By Major Activities Engaged.

Interest-Expense Time Series for Intervest Offices - Ware. Intervest Offices & Warehouses NV (referred to hereafter as "Intervest") is a public regulated real estate company (RREC) under Belgian law, founded in 1996, of which the shares have been listed on Euronext Brussels (INTO) since 1999. Intervest invests in logistics real estate in Belgium and The Netherlands and in office buildings in Belgium. Investments are focused on up-to-date buildings and sustainable (re)development projects, located in strategic locations, with an eye on cluster formation and is aimed at first-rate tenants. The logistics segment of the portfolio in Belgium is located on the Antwerp - Brussels - Nivelles, Antwerp - Limburg - Liège, and Antwerp - Ghent - Bruges axes and, in the Netherlands, on the Moerdijk - 's Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen, Rotterdam - Gorinchem - Nijmegen and Bergen-op-Zoom - Eindhoven - Venlo axes. The office segment of the real estate portfolio focuses on the central cities with an important student population of Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels and Leuven and their surroundings. Intervest distinguishes itself in renting space by going beyond merely renting m². The company goes beyond real estate.

In the year 1500, the share of Western Europe's population living in urban areas was just six percent, but this rose to 31 percent by the end of the 19th century. Despite this drastic change, development was quite slow between 1500 and 1800, and it was not until the industrial revolution when there was a spike in urbanization. As Britain was the first region to undergo the industrial revolution, from around the 1760s until the 1840s, these areas were the most urbanized in Europe by 1890. The Low Countries Prior to the 19th century, Belgium and the Netherlands had been the most urbanized regions due to the legacy of their proto-industrial areas in the medieval period, and then the growth of their port cities during the Netherlands' empirical expansion (Belgium was a part of the Netherlands until the 1830s). Belgium was also quick to industrialize in the 1800s, and saw faster development than its larger, more economically powerful neighbors, France and Germany. Least-urban areas Ireland was the only Western European region with virtually no urbanization in the 16th and 17th century, but the industrial growth of Belfast and Dublin (then major port cities of the British Empire) saw this change by the late-1800s. The region of Scandinavia was the least-urbanized area in Western Europe by 1890, but it saw rapid economic growth in Europe during the first half of the following century.

Free-Cash-Flow-To-The-Firm Time Series for Intervest Offices - Ware. Intervest Offices & Warehouses NV (referred to hereafter as "Intervest") is a public regulated real estate company (RREC) under Belgian law, founded in 1996, of which the shares have been listed on Euronext Brussels (INTO) since 1999. Intervest invests in logistics real estate in Belgium and The Netherlands and in office buildings in Belgium. Investments are focused on up-to-date buildings and sustainable (re)development projects, located in strategic locations, with an eye on cluster formation and is aimed at first-rate tenants. The logistics segment of the portfolio in Belgium is located on the Antwerp - Brussels - Nivelles, Antwerp - Limburg - Liège, and Antwerp - Ghent - Bruges axes and, in the Netherlands, on the Moerdijk - 's Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen, Rotterdam - Gorinchem - Nijmegen and Bergen-op-Zoom - Eindhoven - Venlo axes. The office segment of the real estate portfolio focuses on the central cities with an important student population of Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels and Leuven and their surroundings. Intervest distinguishes itself in renting space by going beyond merely renting m². The company goes beyond real estate.

Contributors: Gaëtan Montero, Cécile Tannier, Isabelle Thomas

Date:2019-16-10

Description: This data set can be used to reproduce the analyses made by the authors in their paper “Morphological delineation of cities based on scaling properties of urban patterns: a comparison of three methods”. It contains 12 shapefiles that represent theoretical urban patterns and 4 shapefiles that can be used to delineate the morphological agglomeration of Brussels (Belgium). It also contains a R script to calculate the carrying capacity of a logistic percolation function.

Description of each file

2_Figure_1: theoretical street network for testing the Natural Cities method

3_Figure_2: theoretical street network for the comparison of two variants of the Natural Cities method

4_Figure_3: theoretical street network to evaluate the effects of the spatial extent of the study area on the delineation of Natural Cities

5_Figure_5a: theoretical pattern for testing MorphoLim (building footprints) – dense urban core

6_Figure_5b: theoretical pattern for testing MorphoLim (building footprints) – less dense urban core

7_Figure_6: theoretical pattern (building footprints) to evaluate the effects of the geographic extent of the study area on the delineation with MorphoLim

8_Percolation_C_Calculation: R code to calculate the carrying capacity of a logistic function (Hierarchical Percolation)

9_Figure_7: theoretical street network for testing Hierarchical Percolation

10_Figure_8: theoretical polycentric street network for testing Hierarchical Percolation

11_Figure_9ac: theoretical urban pattern crossed by a large non built area (road intersections)

12_Figure_9b: theoretical urban pattern crossed by a large non built area (building footprints)

13_Figure_10ac: theoretical pattern where a built ribbon links two urban centres (roads intersections )

14_Figure_10b: theoretical pattern where a built ribbon links two urban centres (building footprints)

15_Belgium_buildings: cadastral data of buildings (2D) for Belgium (© 2009 Administration Générale de la Documentation Patrimoniale)

16_Brabant_buildings: cadastral data of buildings (2D) for the province of Brabant (© 2009 Administration Générale de la Documentation Patrimoniale)

17_Belgium_roads: road network data come from the platform Geofabrik of OpenStreetMap (http://download.geofabrik.de, accessed 08/21/2018) for Belgium

18_Brabant_roads: Road network data come from the platform Geofabrik of OpenStreetMap (http://download.geofabrik.de, accessed 08/21/2018) for the province of Brabant.

Brussels was the home of five Bitcoin ATMs as of June 2020, whereas Amsterdam had more than 20 of these cryptocurrency installations. In general, Bitcoin ATMs were to be found in the bigger cities of the two cities, but they also sporadically appeared in smaller cities. No recent data exists on the market size of Bitcoin in either Belgium or the Netherlands. In the first three quarters of 2017, there were approximately 44,000 transactions in Bitcoin from the Netherlands on a domestic trading platform called BTC Direct. This lack of market data has two reasons. First, the design of the digital currency (meant to provide privacy) makes it is difficult to trace. Second, Bitcoin did not reach the news in the two countries that often after 2017. Approximately 60 percent of the households in the Netherlands who invested in cryptocurrencies started doing so in that year. Data on cryptocurrencies in Belgium and the Netherlands therefore mostly stems from 2017 and 2018, not from 2019.

What can be said about cryptocurrencies in Belgium and the Netherlands?

According to a survey held in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in early 2018, Dutch respondents had the highest cryptocurrency ownership. This could be any cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin but also Ethereum or Ripple. However, consumers from the Benelux region held much less blockchain-powered currencies than their European counterparts. Not only that, they also were less likely to buy into the trend of buying cryptocurrencies over time. This might have to do with the steep decline in Bitcoin prices by the time of the survey. The biggest reason for Dutch consumers to invest in the digital money was not because of technology or out of curiosity, but simply to earn money.

Who owns cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands?

Bitcoin was owned in roughly equal amounts by both male (69 percent) as well as female (65 percent) respondents to a 2018 survey in the Netherlands. Ethereum and Litecoin, however, were way more popular amongst male respondents. Women were overall less likely to invest in cryptocurrencies but did show an interest in coins like Ripple and TRON.

What is the price of a house in Belgium? In 2022, a house in Belgium would cost approximately 319,000 euros. However, that there are large price differences between the three Belgian regions. A house in the Brussels Capital-Region (the city of Brussels along and its surrounding villages) cost about double the price of a house in Wallonia. Of the Belgian provinces, houses in Hainaut were the cheapest. The ranking shown here only includes what in Flemish Dutch is referred to as “woonhuizen” and as “maisons” in French and therefore does not include apartments.

How much is an apartment in Belgium?

In 2022, an apartment in Belgium would cost approximately 260,000 euros. Apartment prices increased by about four percent compared to 2021, which was lower than the house prices (eight percent).

Is residential property in Belgium expensive when compared to the rest of Europe?

The house price index (HPI) of Belgium did not increase as fast as that of other European countries in 2022. Residential property in Belgium (which includes both newly constructed as well as existing property) increased by six percent between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, whereas prices in Estonia and Czechia increased by more than 20 percent.

In 2019, there were * youth accommodations located in the city of Antwerp (Belgium). This marked an important decrease from more than the half compared to the previous year and it was the lower volume in the given time period.

The most office real estate space in Flanders, Belgium was found in Antwerp. Antwerp's office stock amounted to almost *** million square meters in 2021, compared to *** million square meters in Ghent, which was the second largest market in Flanders.