Around One-Third of Belgian Residents Are Now Foreign Nationals, or Have Migrant Backgrounds

Around one-third of Belgium’s resident population are either foreign nationals or from migration backgrounds, according to the country’s statistical agency Statbel.

According to the figures to January 1st, 2020, just over two-thirds of Belgium’s population, or 67.9 per cent, are native Belgians, according to the Statsbel figures, representing 7,806,078 people.

Almost one-in-five, 19.7 per cent, of the population are Belgians of migrant background, which is classified as those with one or two relatives who are either foreign nationals or are foreign nationals who have received Belgian citizenship. {snip}

The figures revealed a large change from 2010 when the native Belgian population was 74.3 per cent and the foreign and migrant-background population just over a quarter.

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The figures also reveal that the younger demographics have larger shares of foreign nationals and migrant-background residents. Native Belgians account for just 54.3 per cent of those under 17-years-old, while they account for 87.3 per cent of those above the age of 65.

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