Brussels Exodus Continues: 37,000 Residents Left in 2025

More than 37,000 residents of the Brussels-Capital Region moved to Flanders or Wallonia in 2025, while only around 19,000 people made the opposite journey, leaving the capital with a net interregional loss of roughly 18,000 inhabitants. The figures, published on 30 July by the Flemish real-estate federation CIB and based on Belgian Interior Ministry data, confirm that the exodus from Brussels continues unabated, as VRT NWS reported.

Context

In total, 74,882 Belgians moved to a different region last year, 1% below the record 75,658 registered in 2024 but still about a third higher than in 2011, when 56,824 people moved between regions. Interregional moves have now exceeded 70,000 every year since 2022, a sign that internal mobility has settled at a historically high level. The 2024 figures, which set the record at the time, were analysed by Business AM and showed the same structural pattern: 36,970 people left Brussels while 20,632 moved in.

Key Developments

Flanders remains the country’s biggest magnet. More than 23,000 Brussels residents have moved there every year for years, and for the first time in 2025 more than 10,000 Walloons also made the move north, an increase of roughly 56% compared with 2011. The flow in the opposite direction, from Flanders to Wallonia, reached a record 8,771, according to BRUZZ.

“Brussels remains attractive for studying, working and building a career. But as soon as people start a family or look for more living space, many look beyond the regional border. We have seen this pattern for years and it is only getting stronger,” said Kristophe Thijs, director of communications at CIB.

The federation points to housing affordability, the desire for more space and the rise of remote work as the main drivers. “Telework has reshuffled the cards. The daily commute weighs less heavily than a few years ago,” Thijs said in the CIB press release. “As a result, people increasingly choose a home that better matches their life stage and budget, even if it lies in another region.”

Flanders’ economic pull also plays a role, with the region offering the country’s largest labour market, low unemployment and an extensive housing supply. The Flemish Rand and cities such as Leuven, Mechelen and Ghent benefit from incoming moves, while French-language broadcaster RTBF noted that the data underline the persistence of the capital’s demographic drain.

Analysis

The trend goes beyond relocation statistics. Demographer Patrick Deboosere of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has previously explained that housing costs are squeezing out the most vulnerable: high rents for low-quality housing are becoming unaffordable while social housing supply falls short, pushing low-income households to commuter towns such as Tienen, Charleroi or the Dender region. Young middle-class families leave in search of a house with a garden, while higher-income households move to municipalities in the Flemish Rand such as Hoeilaart or Overijse.

The exodus does not mean the city is shrinking. Brussels’ total population still grew by roughly 6,200 in 2024, thanks to international migration and natural increase, and the capital remains the only Belgian region with more births than deaths. Yet the composition of the outflow matters: families and middle-class households leaving shifts the tax base and puts pressure on schools, childcare and housing markets in the receiving regions.

CIB argues that housing policy is still organised on a regional, siloed basis while people move according to life stage, accessibility and budget. The federation has called for structural interregional cooperation on housing policy.

What’s Next

With interregional mobility stuck at record levels, the key question is whether the trend will ease as Brussels invests in housing supply or deepen further. Demographic projections suggest the Brussels population could stabilise in the coming years, but the capital’s ability to retain families will depend on affordability, and on whether Belgium’s three regions can coordinate a response that matches a housing market that, as CIB puts it, does not stop at the regional border.