Brussels at the centre of geographical movements of enterprises in Belgium
In 2019, 1,833 Brussels enterprises have moved to Flanders. This is the most significant migratory flow: it is higher by 605 units than the number of migrations of enterprises located in Flanders moving to Brussels (1,228). Movements between these two regions account for half of the migrations in Belgium. And the share of movements from Brussels to Flanders tends to increase these past few years with 30 % of migratory flows, compared to 26 % in 2017.
Migratory flows between Brussels and Wallonia are less significant, but also to the disadvantage of Brussels. 883 Walloon enterprises moved to Brussels, while 1,060 enterprises left Brussels for Wallonia.
The share of enterprises moving to Brussels is, however, much more pronounced for Walloon enterprises, because the active population of Walloon enterprises is less significant than the one in Flanders.
In total, Brussels is involved in 82 % of the migratory flows in Belgium. We register only 569 movements from Flanders to Wallonia, and 510 from Wallonia to Flanders.
Purpose and short description
Regional migrations of active enterprises subject to VAT since 2008, based on the business register DBRIS, per year, region, economic activity (NACE-BEL), employment class and type of enterprise (natural person or legal entity).
Survey population
VAT-registered enterprises
Periodicity
Annual
Release calendar
Results available 9 months after the reference period
Definitions
Economic activity (NACE-BEL): Official nomenclature with an ‘X’ at the end when the information is only on 4 positions.
NIS employment class: NIS employment class as defined in the official NIS nomenclature table
Methodology
In accounting for migrations, we have compared the population of active enterprises subject to VAT on 31/12 between two years and accounted for enterprises whose head office was moved during this period. We did not take into account the migration patterns between the three regions and abroad or unknown locations. This is an annual statistic, which does not take into accounts events happening during the year (if several migrations have taken place during one year, we only take into account the one observed on the annual pictures on 31/12).