Demographics of Belgium

Demographics of Kingdom of Belgium
1948-2009
Population	10,755,000 (January 2009)
Growth rate	0.82% (2008)
Birth rate	11.7 births/1,000 population (2008)
Death rate	9.2 deaths/1,000 population (2008)
Life expectancy	79.22 years (2009 est.)
• male	76.06 years (2009 est.)
• female	82.53 years (2009 est.)
Fertility rate	1.85 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate	4,62
Age structure
0–14 years	16.1% (male 857,373/female 822,303)
15–64 years	66.3% (male 3,480,072/female 3,419,721)
65 and over	17.6% (male 760,390/female 1,074,477) (2009 est.)
Sex ratio
At birth	1.04 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Under 15	1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years	1.02 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.72 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	noun: Belgian(s) adjective: Belgian
Language
Spoken	Dutch, French, German

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Belgium, including ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. All figures are from the Nationaal Instituut voor Statistiek, unless otherwise indicated.^[1]

Population

Belgium had a population of 10,839,905 people on January 1, 2010, an increase of 601,000 in comparison to 2000 (10,239,085 inhabitants). Between 1990 (9,947,782 inhabitants) and 2000 the increase was only 291,000. The population of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels on January 1, 2010 was 6,251,983 (57.7%), 3,498,384 (32.3%) and 1,089,538 (10.1%), respectively.

Immigration

In the beginning of 2012, people of foreign background and their descendants were estimated to have formed 25% of the total population.^[2]

Of these 'New Belgians', 1,200,000 (49%) are of European ancestry and 1,350,000 (51%)^[3] are from non-Western countries.

Since the relaxation of the Belgian nationality law more than 1.3 million migrants have acquired Belgian citizenship and are now considered new Belgians. 89.2% of inhabitants of Turkish origin have been naturalized, as have 88.4% of people of Moroccan background, 75.4% of Italians, 56.2% of the French and 47.8% of Dutch people.^[3]

In 2007, there were 1.38 million foreign-born residents in Belgium, corresponding to 12.9% of the total population. Of these, 685 000 (6.4%) were born outside the EU and 695 000 (6.5%) were born in another EU Member State.^[4]

Vital statistics

Births and deaths

Note: Territorial changes in East-Belgium occurred in 1925, 1940 and 1944.

Infant mortality rate

4.8 in 2010
3.4 in 2011

Total fertility rate

The total fertility rate (TFR) gradually increased during the last decade from 1.60 in 1997, 1.65 in 2002 and 1.82 in 2007. The rates in Brussels are higher than the national average (1.79 in 1997, 1.93 in 2002 and 2.09 in 2007), while they are below the average in Flanders (1.54 in 1997, 1.56 in 2002 and 1.77 in 2007), due to Brussels having relatively more Muslims and Africans and Flanders relatively fewer.

Life expectancy

Male: 74.4 in 1999, 77.2 in 2009
Female: 80.9 in 1999, 82.4 in 2009
Total: 77.7 in 1999, 79.8 in 2009

Ethnic groups

The country is populated by a Flemish majority of about 6,000,000 people speaking Dutch, a Walloon minority of 4,100,000 people speaking French, and about 73,000 German speaking people in Wallonia, near the German border. However, David Levinson reports that "the Flemish and Walloon groups are described by experts as "communities" rather than as ethnic groups, and individuals can move easily from one community to the other by learning to speak the other language".^[5]

The largest group of immigrants and their descendants in Belgium are Moroccans, with more than 450,000^[2] people. The Turks are the third-largest group, and the second-largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering 220,000.^[2][6]

The rest consists mostly of French-speaking people from Brussels, Italians, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spaniards, Algerians, Congolese, Poles, and Indians. (Around 23% of Belgium's population is of non-Belgian origin)^[7]

The exact number of French-speakers in Brussels is hard to determine, but it is estimated that 77% of the people living in Brussels use French and 16% use Dutch in their households, as the sole language or secondary language. See the Brussels article for more details.

Languages

Belgium's three official languages are Dutch, spoken by 59% of the population, French, spoken by 40%, and German, spoken by less than 1%. The vast majority of Belgium's population, 99%, is literate as defined by the Belgian government, i.e. capable of reading and writing in an official language by the time a citizen has reached the age of 15.

Religion

Most, 75% of Belgians, are nominally Roman Catholic. Protestant, Muslim, agnostic, atheist and other minority religions comprise 25% of the population.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Age structure

0–14 years: 16.1% (male 857,373/female 822,303)
15–64 years: 66.3% (male 3,480,072/female 3,419,721)
65 years and over: 17.6% (male 760,390/female 1,047,477) (2009 est.)

Sex ratio

At birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
Total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

Population pyramid of Belgium

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2003 est.)
Total population: 99%
Male: 99%
Female: 99%

Education expenditures

6% of total GDP (2004)

country comparison to the world: 40

Nationality

noun: Belgian(s)
adjective: Belgian

See also

• Belgian nationality law
• Metropolitan areas in Belgium

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2008 edition".