Last year, a total 11,549 companies went bankrupt in Belgium. This is the 3rd annual total since records began. Only in 2013 and 2018 were there more bankruptcies. The figures come from the consultancy firm GraydonCreditsafe. The bankruptcies in 2024 led to a record number of jobs losses. In Belgium as a whole 27,187 jobs were lost. Of these 15,553 jobs were lost in Flanders, 7,297 in Wallonia and 4,233 in the Brussels-Capital Region.
In all three regions saw an increase in the number of companies being declared bankrupt in 2024.
- In Flanders there was a record number of bankruptcies for the second year running: 6,674. This is 5.49% more than in 2023.
- In Brussels, a total of 1,969 companies were declared bankrupt, a rise of 15.08% on 2023.
- In Wallonia, there were 2,803 bankruptcies, up 4.98% on 2023.
Construction, transport and garages fared particularly badly. In the construction industry there were 14.16% more bankruptcies than in 2023. In transport 5.48% more companies went bust than in 2023. 12.9% more garages went bankrupt in 2024 than was the case in 2023.
Interestingly, the hotel and catering industry did not fare badly at all. There was a slight decrease of 0.68% in the number of bankruptcies in hotels and catering.
The bankruptcy of the bus manufacturer Van Hool, in April last year was saw the largest number of job losses at any one employer since the closure of the Ford car plant in Genk (Limburg Province) in 2014.