More and more people from Brussels are living in Flanders

Brussels has always had negative internal migration, which means that more Brussels residents leave the capital to live in Flanders or Wallonia than vice versa. In the course of 2016, 24,000 inhabitants left Brussels to settle in Flanders, an increase of 55% compared to 1997, according to the latest report of the Ibsa (Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis).

The inhabitants of Brussels who settle in another region go mainly to the bordering communes. However, the movement is widening towards more and more distant zones. One of the explanations is the increase in the cost of housing in the municipalities that are closest to Brussels.

People leaving are aged between 30 and 44 with children under ten years old. Among them, there are more and more non-European citizens that entered the European Union after the year 2000.

The number of inhabitants leaving Flanders for Brussels is also increasing. In this case, they are mostly young people. The number of Walloons, instead, is more stable.