The population growth in Belgium has once again bounced back after decreasing in 2020, resulting in the country's population reaching 11,584,008 inhabitants as of 1 January this year.
The latest official population figures of Statbel showed that the Belgian population increased by 62,770 inhabitants between 2020 and last year, a population growth of 0.54%.
"This growth rate is twice as high as last year, when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a slowdown. It is in line with the pre-pandemic trend of around 0.5%," said Cloë Ost, a demographic statistician from the Belgian statistical office.
This was the result of there being more births than deaths in the country — the so-called natural balance was +5,623 in 2021 compared to -13,111 in 2020 — but was mostly due to the fact that many more people arrived in Belgium than the number of emigrations (the international migration balance was 58,118), which explained 90% of the population growth.
Stats show population growth in percentage and cumulative growth
Growth in Brussels remains low
There are also clear differences between the regions and provinces in 2021.
While Brussels recorded a population growth of 2,667 people or 0.22% — relatively low compared to the years before the pandemic — Flanders remains the strongest growing region, with 45,814 additional inhabitants, or a growth rate of 0.69%.
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In Wallonia, the percentage was 0.39%, with 14,289 additional inhabitants.
Deaths, births and migration
The number of babies being born in 2020 saw a very sharp decline compared to the year before, from 117,103 births to 113,739 (-2.9%), however, this figure recovered again in 2021 to 117,914 births (+0.7%).
In 2020, the number of deaths rose significantly (16.6%) from 108,745 in 2019 to 126,850 deaths in 2020, and although it dropped back to 112,291 in 2021, these figures make it clear that the virus still had an impact on the number of deaths.
While the number of international migrations, which played a large role in the population growth, has recovered, the number of people leaving the country remains at levels lower than in 2019 (119,560 emigrations in 2019, 102,413 in 2020 and 107,416 in 2021).
