According to figures released earlier this week by the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (BISA), in 2023 the birth rate in the Brussels-Capital Region was at its lowest level since records began. The average number of children per household in Brussels is 1.37, the lowest figure of any of Belgium’s 3 regions. The reasons for the relatively low number of children per household in Brussels can be found in uncertainty about the future, the increase in the age at which women have their first child, families leaving Brussels for Flanders or Wallonia and the changing demographics of the Brussels-Capital Region.
In Brussels the birth rate has been falling for the past decade. In 2023 13,987 babies were born in the capital’s hospitals. This is 757 fewer than in 2022 and 4,600 fewer than in 2010, a year that saw the number of births in the capital’s hospitals peak.
The causes of the fall in Brussels’ birth rate are reported to include uncertainty about the global economic and geopolitical situation and uncertainty about climate change. Furthermore, the age at which women in Brussels have their first child has increased. With women waiting longer to have their first child the number of births automatically falls.
Leaving town
Couples leaving Brussels to set up home a few kilometres away in Flanders or Wallonia also plays a role in bringing down the capital’s birth rate. The birth rate in the municipalities that are near to or peripheral to Brussels is much higher than in the Brussels-Capital Region itself.
In addition to this demographic are also a determining factor. In the Brussels-Capital Region 45% of the women of child-bearing age (15-49) are foreign nationals. The birth rate among this group has fallen more sharply in recent years than among women that are Belgian nationals.
Reasons for this include changes in the composition of the non-Belgian population of Brussels. During the past decade the vast majority of newcomers to Brussels came from elsewhere in Europe and those that have migrated here from elsewhere in Europe generally have fewer children than immigrants for other parts of the world.