Where does Belgium work? A quarter of Belgian workers are concentrated in 10 municipalities
Of the 581 municipalities in Belgium as of 1 January 2021, 10 municipalities together account for more than 25% of the working population in Belgium, i.e. the workers. These municipalities form the largest employment centres in the country.
Antwerp ranks first, receiving nearly 6% of Belgian workers, followed by the City of Brussels (5.8%) and Ghent (4%). The ranking continues with Liège (2.2%), Leuven (1.8%), Charleroi (1.7%), Bruges (1.5%), Namur (1.4%), Anderlecht (1.3%) and Mechelen (1.2%).
This is what emerges from the 2021 Census data on commuting published by Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.
Belgian cities that are attractive for employment
The country's major cities and some municipalities on the outskirts of Brussels take in more workers than they distribute. Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Liège, Machelen, Zaventem, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and Namur are the municipalities with the highest positive commuting balance. This means that every morning they welcome more people than they see leaving. These are referred to as attractive municipalities from an employment perspective.
The City of Brussels clearly stands out with a commuting balance of +207,842, far ahead of Antwerp (+69,746).
A total of 100 Belgian municipalities have a positive commuting balance in 2021: 13 municipalities in Brussels, 54 in Flanders and 33 in Wallonia.
Focus on major employment centres
The city of Brussels welcomes many commuters
11% of the people who work in the City of Brussels live there. 4% live in Ixelles, 4% in Schaerbeek, 2.6% in Uccle and 2.6% in Anderlecht.
All municipalities in Belgium except one (Herstappe) send at least three workers to the City of Brussels.
Antwerp, a localised employment pool
Antwerp stands out for its high percentage of residents who work there: 46.5% of workers live there. 2.2% of workers in Antwerp live in Schoten. Workers working in Antwerp and living in the municipalities of Brasschaat, Beveren, Kapellen, Mortsel, Stabroek, Brecht, Mechelen, Zwijndrecht, Edegem and Sint-Niklaas exceed the one per cent mark. Nearly two out of three workers in Antwerp (63.9%) come from the city of Antwerp or neighbouring municipalities.
Furthermore, only eight Belgian municipalities have no residents who work in Antwerp: Fauvillers, Herstappe, Burg-Reuland, Trois-Ponts, Stavelot, Houyet, Tintigny and Tellin.
Working in Ghent, living in neighbouring municipalities
Two out of five people who work in Ghent also live in Ghent. Half (53,3%) of the people who work in Ghent live in Ghent (40%), Evergem (3.9%), Deinze (2.7%), Merelbeke (2.4%), Lievegem (2.2%) and Lochristi (2.1%) respectively. All these municipalities are adjacent to the municipality of Ghent.
Of Belgium's 581 municipalities, 47 have no residents who work in Ghent. Of these 47 municipalities, only two (Mesen and Herstappe) are part of the Flemish region. The other 45 municipalities are part of the Walloon region, specifically the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Liège and Hainaut.
In Leuven, 1 in 3 workers lives in Leuven
30.8% of the people who work in Leuven live in that municipality. Workers in Leuven living in Herent, Tienen, Aarschot, Lubbeek, Rotselaar and Oud-Heverlee exceed the 2% mark. Of Belgium's 581 municipalities, 38 have no residents who work in Leuven. They are located in the provinces of West Flanders, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur, Liège and Hainaut.
Liège, a strong local presence
More than half (57.6%) of the people who work in Liège live in Liège (33.9%), Seraing (5.1%), Herstal (4.1%), Ans (3%), Chaudfontaine (2.6%), Saint-Nicolas (2.5%), Oupeye (2.2%), Flémalle (2.2%) and Grâce-Hollogne (2.1%).
105 municipalities have no residents working in Liège. These are mainly located in Flanders but also in the south of Wallonia.
Definitions and concepts
The Census 2021 is a snapshot of the population residing in Belgium on 1 January 2021. It provides a wide range of figures on housing and demographic, socio-economic and educational characteristics of the citizens. The objective of the Census is twofold: to comply with the European regulation and to produce statistics to address national specific needs (public services, international organisations, researchers, enterprises and private individuals).
The employed population[1] on 1 January 2021 is defined as all persons residing in Belgium who were in employment during the week preceding this reference date. The representation of workers' shares according to the different work localities provides an effective visualisation of the distribution of workers across Belgium. This representation is calculated on the basis of municipalities. The share of workers in a municipality is calculated by counting the number of people who work there, regardless of their municipality of residence. This is the effective number of workers in that municipality. The proportion of workers in a municipality is obtained by taking the effective number of workers in the municipality, dividing it by the total number of workers in Belgium, and multiplying it by 100.
This distribution of worker shares is represented on a map with a quartile discretization and allows municipalities to be grouped into groups of 25%.
On 1 January 2011, Belgium had 4,431,503 employed people. Of these, 92,295 worked abroad (2.1%) and 56,455 had an unknown place of work (1.3%). This means that 4,282,753 people had a known place of work in Belgium. For 34.7% of them, this place of work was in their municipality of residence.
Ten years later, on 1 January 2021, Belgium had 4,951,314 employed people. Of these, 4,812,359 worked in Belgium (97.2%), 97,315 worked abroad (1.2%) and 41,640 had an unknown place of work (0.8%). Among those whose place of work was known, the majority (66%) worked outside their municipality of residence.
This situation makes it possible to make a distinction between residents working in their municipality of residence, those working in another municipality, municipalities that are attractive in terms of residential appeal, and those that are attractive in terms of employment for the working population. This classification also makes it possible to calculate the commuting balance.
Indeed, the people who cross municipal boundaries to get to their place of work are commuting between municipalities. So the commuting balance is the difference between the number of people entering a municipality and the number of people leaving that municipality to go to work. The commute between home and work thus makes it possible to determine which municipalities are more attractive in terms of employment and which are more attractive in terms of residential location.
A municipality is considered attractive in terms of employment when the difference between the number of people entering the municipality to work (temporary immigration to the municipality) and the number of people leaving the municipality to work elsewhere (temporary emigration from the municipality) is greater than zero. This is referred to as a positive commuting balance.
[1] The employed population includes all employed persons during the reference week. The following persons are considered as employed:
- persons aged 15 or over and
- who either performed at least one hour of work in the last week of the year for pay or profit, in cash or in kind; or
- were temporarily absent during the reference period from a job to which they maintained a formal attachment.
The share of employees is the ratio between the number of employees and the employed population.
In Belgium, 83.3% of the employed population was in paid employment on 1 January 2021. As in 2011, the disparities in the country are low with a share of 85% in the Walloon Region versus 80% in the Brussels-Capital Region. In the Flemish Region, it is estimated at 82.9%. Although there is a high share of employees in the south of the province of Luxembourg, close to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, in particular in the municipality of Aubange (93.8%), the province of Hainaut has the highest share of employees with 86.5%. Conversely, the lowest rate is situated in Walloon Brabant (78.6%) and particularly in Lasne (57.3%), the second Belgian municipality with the lowest share of employees after Sint-Martens-Latem (55.3%).
The share of self-employed is the share of self-employed workers with or without employees in the employed population.
On 1 January 2021, 15.6% of the employed population in Belgium was self-employed. For the whole Walloon Region, the share of self-employed amounts to 14% compared to 16% in the Flemish Region. In contrast to employees, there are more self-employed in and around the capital, i.e. in Walloon Brabant (20.6%), in Flemish Brabant (16.4%) and in the Brussels-Capital Region (18.1%) but also in West Flanders (17.9%). Moving away from the centre of the country, the share of self-employed drops and rises again in the more remote municipalities, notably in West Flanders but also in the north of the province of Antwerp, in some municipalities of the province of Liège and in the east of the province of Luxembourg. However, in this last province, in particular in the south, the share of self-employed in the employed population is the smallest of the country (12.2%). In the province of Hainaut, the second province with the lowest share of self-employed, the municipalities of Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes and Gerpinnes differ from the other municipalities in the Region with a higher share of self-employed.
This indicator represents the share of the employed population working outside their province of residence.
On 1 January 2021, the share of the employed population working outside their province of residence varies between 6% in the municipalities of Staden and Vleteren and 74% in Kraainem. At national level, this percentage is estimated at 25.4%. It is interesting to note that there are few commuters to another province among the inhabitants of the provinces of West Flanders, Antwerp and Liège. In the Brussels-Capital Region also, only 20% of the inhabitants leave their province to work and they are even fewer in the south of the Region. Conversely, in the Walloon Region, despite the large area of provinces, 29.8% of workers go to work in another province. However, this figure is higher on the borders of each province and particularly in municipalities close to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. In the Flemish Region, the percentage of people working outside their province of residence amounts to 24.2% and varies much more from one province to the other, depending mainly on the proximity to Brussels and the borders with other provinces or a neighbouring country.
Among the municipalities where this indicator is the highest, we find many municipalities with language facilities: Kraainem (74%), Linkebeek (73.6%), Drogenbos (73.2%), Wezembeek-Oppem (69%), Sint-Genesius-Rode (67.1%), Enghien (65.8%), Wemmel (63.5%), Voeren (59.6%), or Raeren (52.4%), among others.
The Census 2021 in a nutshell
The Census 2021 is a snapshot of the population living in Belgium on 1 January 2021. It provides a wide range of figures on housing and demographic, socio-economic and educational characteristics of the citizens. The objective of the Census is twofold: to comply with the European regulation[1] and to produce statistics to address national specific needs (public services, international organizations, researchers, enterprises and private individuals).
Previously based on an exhaustive survey of all citizens, since 2011 the Census has been based exclusively on the use of administrative databases.
Definitions
The various statistical units
Population
The population taken into account for the Census 2021 is the residential population, as registered in the National Register of Natural Persons (RNPP) on 1 January 2021. The Belgian population includes Belgians and non-Belgians who have been allowed or authorised to settle or to stay in Belgium but does not include non-Belgians living on the territory for less than three months, asylum seekers and non-Belgians in an illegal situation[2].
Private households
This group includes people living alone in a dwelling and groups of several people living in the same dwelling and providing themselves with essentials for living.
Family nuclei
A family nucleus is defined as two or more persons who belong to the same household and who are related as husband and wife, as partners in a registered partnership, as partners in a consensual union, or as parent and child.
Living quarters
Living quarters refer to all quarters used as the usual residence of one or several persons.
Conventional dwellings
Conventional dwellings are separate units (surrounded by walls and covered by a roof) that are independent (with a direct access from the street or a staircase, passage) and designed to be used as a permanent dwelling.
Occupied conventional dwellings
Occupied conventional dwellings are conventional dwellings used as the usual residence of one or several private households.
Variables and their description
Sex
This variable is used to distinguish men from women.
Age
The age reached in completed years of age on 1 January 2021.
Place of usual residence
The place of residence is that registered in the National Register on 1 January 2021. So this is the place of legal residence.
The Belgian municipalities have changed between 2011 and 2021. In the comparisons shown on this website, the figures for 2011 are broken down according to the municipalities of 2021.
Locality
A locality is defined as a distinct population cluster, that is an area defined by population living in neighbouring or contiguous buildings. This area constitutes a group of buildings, none of which is separated from its nearest neighbour by more than 200 meters.
The Belgian municipalities have changed between 2011 and 2021. In the comparisons shown on this website, the figures for 2011 are broken down according to the municipalities of 2021.
Employed persons
The following persons are considered as employed :
- persons aged 15 or over and
- who either performed at least one hour of work in the last week of the year for pay or profit, in cash or in kind; or
- were temporarily absent during the reference period from a job to which they maintained a formal attachment .
Status in employment
Status in employment: distinction between employees, employers and own-account workers.
Location of place of work
Location of place of work: geographical area in which a currently employed person does his/her job.
Industry
Industry: kind of production or activity of the establishment - or enterprise, if the establishment is not known - in which the main job of an employed person is located.
Remark
The comparison with the previous Census requires some caution: this publication is based on the Belgian population and the Census 2011 has as reference the European definition of the population.
Information on the difference between the Belgian population and the Census 2011 population.
Metadata
[1] COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2017/543 of 22 March 2017 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 763/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on population and housing censuses as regards the technical specifications of the topics and of their breakdowns.
[2] Information on the difference between the Belgian population and the Census 2011 population.