More than one in three inhabitants of Brussels is not Belgian

The Brussels Institut for Statistics and Analysis released last February 20 the Mini-Bru 2018 with the main figures about Brussels Capital Region in 2017.

Brussels has 179 different nationalities

In 2017, Brussels gathered 179 different nationalities.  414,139 foreigners out of a total population of 1,191,604 people. In the capital, therefore, more than one inhabitant in three is not Belgian. Another relevant fact: among the 414,139 foreigners, 275,167 are from the EU27.

The French are leading this ranking. They represent 15.2% of foreigners in Brussels. The Romanians (9.3%) now dethrone Moroccans (9%). The list continues with Italy, Spain, Poland and Portugal. In total, two-thirds of these Brussels residents actually come from the European Union.

The surprise: Romania

In 2007, Romania together with Bulgaria joined the European Union. Since then the number of Romanians in Brussels is growing. In 1994, Romania was not even in the top 20. Another relevant fact is that between 2007 and 2014 Romanians needed a working permit to remain in Brussels. Since 2014, it’s over – the movement of Romanian workers is completely free.