Brussels remains a city of singles according to study

A new report shows that one fifth of Brussels inhabitants are single, with the number especially high among people in their 20s.

Figures from the Brussels statistical office Bisa, based on data from Statbel, show that Brussels had 258,510 people living alone as of 1 January 2021. This is nearly half (46%) of all households and accounts for a fifth (21%) of all Brussels residents. There are currently no figures for this year.

The capital has the highest rate of people living by themselves in the entire country. Ixelles (36%), Etterbeek (31%), Saint-Gilles (29%) and Brussels City (24%) all make the top five municipalities with the most solo inhabitants.

"In Ixelles, single people are often young adults,” explains VUB demographer Patrick Deboosere. “There are many students who stick around after their studies, but also employees of the European institutions. In the city of Brussels, that group is also quite large, but that is balanced in the percentages by families in Laeken and Neder-over-Heembeek."

For the sake of clarity, single parents have not yet been included. In Brussels there are about 65,000. Added to the single residents, 36% of all Brussels inhabitants are single. "But such administrative figures do not measure everything," warns Deboosere. Young singles who still live with their parents, for example, are out of the picture. Single people with a long-distance relationship as well. And many students or young workers are still registered in another region.

In Brussels, the majority of singles are younger than 30. The number of sngle people between the ages of 18 and 29, plus their peers who still live with their parents, is in the region of 140,000. That's two-thirds of that entire age group, although some of them could be in a relationship without living together.

About 30% of 30 to 64-year-olds live alone, of which there are slightly more men than women. Some 38% of 65 to 79-year-olds live alone and 46 percent of over-80s. Here, the vast majority are women. Single over-80s in residential care centres are not yet counted.

"There is a big difference between different single people,” says demographer Deboosere. “Young singles often still have a large circle of friends, while people who are left alone in old age are more at risk of isolation. Single parents are still a separate situation, where you have to pay close attention to the support to the children."

Whether Brussels should prepare for even more singles in the coming years remains difficult to estimate. In the past 20 years, the proportions has not shifted significantly.

"You can make projections for the next 10 years about aging, but nobody knows what the relocation or immigration movements will look like by then," says Patrick Deboosere. "For the whole of Belgium, the trend that more people stay alone for a longer period of time will continue."

This week, the Planning Bureau published new projections on population evolution. Brussels is expected to grow by around 100,000 inhabitants between now and 2070. In Flanders, a net growth of one million is expected, in Wallonia of 200,000. There are no projections yet on family structures. Today, 14% of Flemish people live alone and 16% of Walloons.