VLAAMS GEWEST - Population
An ageing population
The Flemish population has increased by 25.7% since the Second World War, compared with a rise of only 16.6% in Belgium as a whole.
The population of Flanders was 5 972 781 in 2002, i.e. 58% of the total population of Belgium and equivalent to a density of 442 inhabitants per km2. Compared with 1990, the population growth, at 4 %, was above the national average. This growth was due both to positive net migration and to natural increase over the last decade. Some 4.6% of the population is foreign.
The birth rate fell from 12.1 per thousand in 1990 to 10.4 per thousand in 1999. The death rate has averaged 9.7 per thousand, slightly below the national average. Infant mortality fell in 1999 compared with 1990, but the highest value was recorded in 1993, at 551.
The salient feature of the demographic trend in Flanders is increasing ageing of the population. At the beginning of 2000 the population consisted of 23% young people (aged 0-19), 60% adults (aged 20-64) and 17% older people (aged 65 and over).
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