International migration balance of 47,562 persons in 2025

International migration balance of 66,044 persons in 2024

In 2024, the international migration balance for Belgium was 66,044: this means that more people immigrated to Belgium than emigrated. This is what emerges from the figures of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.

The international migration balance, the difference between the number of immigrations^[1] (194,212) and emigrations (128,168), was positive (+66,044) in 2024. A positive international migration balance is within expectation, but is slightly lower than in 2023, when it was 66,349.

The largest proportion of people who immigrate have the Belgian nationality (22,506, or 11.6%), followed by 18,845 Romanians (9.7%) and 14,423 French (7.4%). The impact of the war in Ukraine on immigrations is diminishing further. In 2024, 12,633 (6.5%) of immigrants had the Ukrainian nationality, compared to 57,514 (24.6%) and 13,702 (7.0%) in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

In addition, 128,168 international emigrations^[2] were registered in 2024. This figure is also very high. In 2022 and 2023, this figure was 117,085 and 128,538, respectively. Mostly Belgians (36,302; 28.3%), Romanians (15,414; 12%) and French (10,442; 8.1%) emigrate. Emigration of people of Ukrainian nationality is still playing a role. They accounted for 4.6% of emigrants in 2024, compared to 4.6% in 2022 and 5.9% in 2023.

In 2024, the international migration balance was again the driving force behind population growth in Belgium. The positive international migration balance offsets the negative natural balance (difference between the number of births and deaths) and, in addition, ensured a fairly strong population growth by 61,901 inhabitants, or by 0.52%.

[1] International immigration consists of three movements: (1) classic international immigration, (2) change of register 'in' (transfer from the waiting register to the aliens' register) and (3) re-registration (following an automatic deletion).

[2] International emigration consists of three movements: (1) classic international emigration, (2) change of register 'out' (transfer to the waiting register) and (3) automatic deletion.