Monitoring of living conditions

The quarterly monitoring of living conditions is 2 years old: more Belgians find it difficult to make ends meet

Households
The quarterly monitoring of living conditions is 2 years old: more Belgians find it difficult to make ends meet

Every quarter for the past 2 years, Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, interviews some 5,000 Belgians aged 16 to 74 about their personal well-being and living conditions. In the third quarter of 2023, 40% of Belgians found it difficult to make ends meet. This figure is higher than precisely 2 years ago, when the measurements for this survey began. At the time, 36% found it difficult, rather difficult or very difficult to make ends meet. If we look at the evolution over these two years, we can see that the situation became more complicated in 2022, with a peak in difficulties in the fourth quarter of 2022, during which 47% of 16-74 year-olds mentioned difficulties in making ends meet.

The situation slightly improved in the first half of 2023, and became stable in the most recent measurements (third quarter 2023).

While regional figures follow more or less the same trends, there is a difference in levels between Flanders on the one hand and Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region on the other. Indeed, 34% of those interviewed in Flanders said they had difficulty making ends meet in the third quarter of 2023, compared to almost 49% of those in Wallonia and Brussels.

Some categories of people are more vulnerable and find it harder to make ends meet, and the situation for these various groups does not seem to have stabilised in the latest measurements. This is the case for the unemployed and people on incapacity for work: 74% of them found it difficult in the third quarter of 2023, compared to about 31% of employed people.

The same applies to people with low incomes. 67% of people in the first income quintile said they had difficulties in the third quarter of 2023, compared to 59% a quarter earlier, and 55% two years ago.

Purpose and brief description

IALC (Infra Annual Living Conditions) is a quarterly survey on personal wellbeing and living conditions.

Population

Members of private households aged 16 to 74.

Sample frame

Demographic data from the National Register.

Data collection method and sample size

The IALC survey was coupled to the Labour Force Survey (LFS). A limited module of questions was added at the end of the questionnaire for the respondents in the fourth wave of the LFS survey (in the CAWI/WATI questionnaire). This survey started in the third quarter of 2021 and is scheduled until the fourth quarter of 2024.

Definitions

Low-skilled people are people who have at best a lower secondary education diploma. Medium-skilled people have obtained an upper secondary education diploma, but no higher education diploma. High-skilled people have a higher education diploma.

Questionnair

Questionnair

Response rate

Statbel surveys some 5.000 Belgians aged 16 to 74. 

Periodicity

Quarterly