Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes statistics based on new geographical breakdowns, making it possible to identify the population living at a defined distance from a point. This can be a hospital, a train station, the border, a motorway or a motorway entrance.
In Belgium, 58 % of the population lives in a 5-kilometre radius around a hospital with an emergency department. This percentage amounts to 87 % of the Belgian population if we extend this radius to 10 km, and to 99 % if we extend it to 20 km. Although the total population lives close (5 km) to a hospital in Brussels, it only concerns 22 % of the population in the province of Luxembourg and 35 % in Limburg.
Besides, 56 % of the population lives less than 25 km away from a national border. 65 % of Walloon, 62 % of Flemish and...obviously, no one from Brussels.
72 % of Belgians have their home less than 5 km away from a motorway entrance, and 82 % less than 5 km away from a train station. The realities are very different between the Brussels-Capital Region, where 100 % of the population is in this area, and the province of Luxembourg, where respectively 42 % of the population has a motorway entrance less than 5 km from their home and 57 % has a train station at that same distance.
The data that can be viewed on this map are only one example of the possibilities: new geographical breakdowns are being developed and will be added over time. If you have ideas or specific needs, don’t hesitate to tell us. We will be happy to study their feasibility.
Data used
Radiuses of 5 km, 10 km and 20 km were created around hospitals, motorway entrances and train stations.
This concerns 130 hospitals with an emergency department in Belgium, based on the institutions with initial emergency care (19-11-2019)) and specialised emergency care services (19-11-2019) of the FPS Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment - DG Health Care - Department Data Management (https://www.health.belgium.be/fr/sante/organisation-des-soins-de-sante/…).
For motorway entrances, the file Open Street Map 2019 (motorway et motorway_link) has been used and contains 762 motorway entrances in Belgium.
The 554 train stations in Belgium are active stations, i.e. stations with travellers counts (figures travellers on board (counts October 2018) - SNCB).