Just over one in three households in Belgium are single-person households, a figure that rises to almost half of all households when it comes to Brussels, according to national statistics agency Statbel.
The numbers, released this week, show that over the last 20 years, those living alone in Belgium have increased from 33% to 36% as a share of all households. Meanwhile in Brussels over the same period, there has been a decrease from 50% to 47%.
The financial impact of living alone prompted politician Carla Dejonghe (Open VLD) to take action. Last year, she received overwhelming support from Woluwe-Saint-Pierre for a new charter for single households.
Since then she has been working with local businesses to offer discounted tickets and other promotions to encourage single households to take part more actively in their community.
As part of a new International Singlehood Advocates Network, she has been exchanging ideas with other campaigners on how to improve conditions for those living alone.
"Our society still places too much emphasis on finding a partner. Some people think this is the only way to be happy or successful. What weighs most heavily in not having a relationship, however, is that you are financially on your own. And that is not always easy" explained Dejonghe about the impact beyond the statistics.
She notes the ongoing discussions about changing the inheritance tax system as some recognition of the problem. Changes would aim to reduce penalties for single people without families gifting their wealth to friends.
Single-person households are dominant across the EU
In the EU, single-person households are the dominant type, and this has been rapidly increasing since the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Eurostat, between 2015 and 2024 households without children in the EU grew 16.9%, the fastest for all types of households. The latest figures show that the EU has 75 million single adult households, compared to 202 million households in total. At 37% this is a similar share to Belgium.
For most countries, the numbers have been tracking steadily upwards, but others have seen more dramatic shifts. For example, between 2021 and 2024 Portugal saw a 53.9% increase in single-person households, and Poland 35.8%.
Meanwhile, in Czechia, the number of single-person households has fallen, down 12.9% over the same period.
In non-EU countries such as the UK, the growth in single-person households has been put down to the growing share of those aged over 65 living alone.
As a share of all single households, more people under 35 (30.2%) live alone in Brussels, than those over 65 (24.1%). In Flanders however, 42.2% of single-person households are those aged over 65.
This reflects Dejonghe's view about the need to change how we view single life "love yourself first, because you are the person you will spend the rest of your life with."
