International migration balance of 66,044 persons in 2024
In 2024, the international migration balance for Belgium was 66,044: this means that more people immigrated to Belgium than emigrated. This is what emerges from the figures of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.
The international migration balance, the difference between the number of immigrations[1] (194,212) and emigrations (128,168), was positive (+66,044) in 2024. A positive international migration balance is within expectation, but is slightly lower than in 2023, when it was 66,349.
The largest proportion of people who immigrate have the Belgian nationality (22,506, or 11.6%), followed by 18,845 Romanians (9.7%) and 14,423 French (7.4%). The impact of the war in Ukraine on immigrations is diminishing further. In 2024, 12,633 (6.5%) of immigrants had the Ukrainian nationality, compared to 57,514 (24.6%) and 13,702 (7.0%) in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
In addition, 128,168 international emigrations[2] were registered in 2024. This figure is also very high. In 2022 and 2023, this figure was 117,085 and 128,538, respectively. Mostly Belgians (36,302; 28.3%), Romanians (15,414; 12%) and French (10,442; 8.1%) emigrate. Emigration of people of Ukrainian nationality is still playing a role. They accounted for 4.6% of emigrants in 2024, compared to 4.6% in 2022 and 5.9% in 2023.
In 2024, the international migration balance was again the driving force behind population growth in Belgium. The positive international migration balance offsets the negative natural balance (difference between the number of births and deaths) and, in addition, ensured a fairly strong population growth by 61,901 inhabitants, or by 0.52%.
[1] International immigration consists of three movements: (1) classic international immigration, (2) change of register ‘in’ (transfer from the waiting register to the aliens’ register) and (3) re-registration (following an automatic deletion).
[2] International emigration consists of three movements: (1) classic international emigration, (2) change of register ‘out’ (transfer to the waiting register) and (3) automatic deletion.
Since 1988, migration data have come from the National Register. This is where the information from municipal population registers is centralised.
Internal migration statistics describe changes of residence within the country.
International migration statistics describe immigration from abroad and emigration abroad.
Since 1 February 1995, asylum seekers registered in the waiting register are no longer included in the resident population. They are included in the statistics on the evolution of the population only when they obtain the refugee status or are regularised on some other basis, in the category “register change”.
From 2007, “total international immigration” includes the following former categories:
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“Migration Movements - Arrivals” (or “International immigration”)
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“Register changes”
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“Re-registrations after deletion”.
From 2007, “total international emigration” includes the following former categories:
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“Migration Movements - Departures” (or “International emigration”)
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“Automatically deleted population”
The migration balance is calculated as the difference between the total number of international immigrations and the total number of international emigrations