New statistics published by Statbel (Belgium's statistics agency) show a strong link between car ownership and having children.t In 2020, 49.7% of Belgians who lived on their own did not own a car. A further 47% only owned one.
On average, Belgian households own just one car. The highest levels of car ownership were recorded in Lasne, Wallonia, where families owned an average of 1.69 cars.
Yet car ownership is becoming an expensive luxury for many professionals. Those living in the city increasingly shun cars in favour of public transport.
For couples without children, 12.6% do not have a car at all. Among those with at least one child, only 9.6% did not own a car.
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The Brussels-Capital Region has one of the lowest rates of car ownership in the country. On average, households in the capital owned 0.58 cars per household. In Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, in the north of the city, there were only 0.34 cars per household. In 2020, only 53% of Brussels families owned a car, compared to over 85% in Flanders and Wallonia.
The pandemic has greatly changed the way that people in Belgium get around. The sale of new cars has declined significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic. 2021 was a record year for the sale of used cars and the registration of new vehicles also fell at the start of the year.
