Number of births in Belgium 1988-2022

In 2022, around 113,600 babies were born in Belgium. This was one of the lowest number of births in the last decade. The number of children born in the country peaked in 2010, at just over 129,000. The Flemish Region saw the largest number of newborns in 2020, at roughly 62,800. The number of children born in the Brussels-Capital Region was roughly one quarter of this, at around 15,800.

 Declining birth rate 

  2010 was not just the year with the largest number of babies born in the last ten years, the birth rate also peaked that year, at 1.84 children per woman. In 2018 the birth rate in Belgium also reached its lowest point since 2010, at 1.63. For the next three years, a very small increase in the birth rate is forecast, though. In 2020, the birth rate is expected to reach 1.66 children per woman.

Trends in crude birth rate

  In the last 75 years, the crude birth rate in Belgium dropped significantly, from 16.8 to just 10.8 births per 1,000 people. Babies born today in Belgium were, however, expected to reach an age of more than 81 years.